Bakemono Ai
by eremiticAntiquarian
Summary: Naruto successfully completes the Retrieve Sasuke Mission and brings him home but at a price. His demon is injured and not letting him heal. His only chance for survival is another demon vessel with mixed intentions. Eventual GaaNaru shounen ai.
1. Hospitalized

_What the-? Where am I? I think I know this place… Its all so white. Too bright. Hurts my eyes. Where am I? I know that smell. I've been here before. Ugh. I'm in the hospital aren't I? And those voices, who are they? I know that deep one. That's Kakashi-sensei! But who are the higher ones? I can almost see them. I just need to open my eyes a little bit more. Now, turn your head. See who they are. I know I can do this. Why does it all hurt so much? Tsunada-baachan! Shizune-neechan! Are they here to make the pain go away? Why can't I remember what happened? _

_Sasuke! That bastard! Did I even get him back? Was it a failed mission? What was it that Kakashi-sensei was telling that medical nin? Yes! I did it! But he also said that Sasuke was in worse shape than I was… that means he is probably dead. _

_So, we must have just gotten back. Why are they standing around talking when I'm in so much pain? Why haven't they healed me yet? Why hasn't Kyuubi healed me yet? _

_They're so noisy over there. Why are they so loud? What are they talking about anyway? Words, words. Are they really saying real things? I can't understand any of it. _

_WAIT! WHAT? 2 weeks! I've been asleep to weeks and I'm still in this bad of condition? Have they not tried to heal me? I'm so confused. My head hurts. I shouldn't think anymore. I just want to go back to sleep… _

_Why do they keep talking louder and louder? Ugh! I'm starting to get a headache from their noise. Maybe I should tell them to shut up? If I could even move my mouth that is… Everything hurts so much. Why haven't they healed me yet? I'm in so much pain here. Bastards, they're so mean. br_

_Oh man… Are they still getting louder? I just want to go back to bed_.

"Hey… shut up. I'm trying to sleep here."

Three voices shouted "Naruto!" before the said genin passed out again.

"Tsunade-sama," Kakashi started wearily, "What are we going to do if there are no records on how to heal a demon."

Tsunade sighed, "Shizune, track down all records on Naruto, Kyuubi, and any other demon vessels you happen to come across. There has to be something we missed or something that can give us a lead."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama!"

"Kakashi, I want to see Naruto well as much as you do. Please try and hold on a little longer. While he isn't getting any better, he is stable. That's something to be thankful for. In the mean time, I believe you have an S-rank mission to take care of, right?"

"Please, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade closed her eyes and bowed her head. Kakashi was no longer there a second later when she opened her eyes. The Godaime walked over to the bed containing the future Hokage. She touched the boy's cheek and silently wished for a miracle to happen soon. She didn't tell the boy's Sensei, but she feared that Naruto didn't have that much time left. He couldn't last under this constant pain for much longer. Tsunade sighed heavily.

When the door swung open behind her, she jumped back from Naruto, and inquired the unseen entrant. "Are you here for another visit," she asked fulling thinking it was Sakura, Sasuke, or Shikamaru.

"This is my first time visiting Naruto-kun, Hokage-sama," said a dry voice.

Tsunade spun around with wide eyes. The last person that she'd expect, and from the rumors, also the last person that she'd want to be visiting Naruto stood before her. His eyes were emotionless when staring into her own pair. She feared leaving the room with _that_ redhead present. Her gaze wandered to the kanji for love on his forehead. When she looked back down, the sand-nin's eyes were completely adverted and centered on Naruto's face. Tsunade noticed emotion surface on the sleepless eyes. However, she couldn't read it.

"Sabaku no Gaara. Why are you here? Our official meeting isn't until this afternoon," Tsunade questioned.

"Uzumaki Naruto," was Gaara's only reply.

He continued to stare at Naruto, never looking back at the Godaime Hokage. A range of emotions filtered through Gaara's eyes. Tsunade thought that she could pick out concern along with fear and worry. Gaara maneuvered around the Hokage and to Naruto's bed. Tsunade sighed and gave in.

"Visiting hours are over at six. Take care of him please. He woke up only a few minutes ago for about a second. Alert a medical-nin if he wakes up again. Its that blue button over there. We don't know how to heal him because it isn't him that needs it. It's the demon within him that is injured and preventing him from becoming well again. I don't know what to do, but I'm trying. Its becoming hopeless, no one has attempted to heal a demon before. Anyway, please don't forget our meeting at one o'clock."

With that and a sigh, the blond kunoichi left her favorite genin—though she would never admit that to anyone—in the care of another one of the special shinobi that had fought Naruto and were forever changed by the energetic boy.


	2. Treaty

_Did a kunai just fly past my face? Why? Who? I don't understand. Where are they? What are they trying to do? Is it Akatsuki? Is it Orochimaru? What's going on? Wait, who is that? An ANBU. Why is there an ANBU after me? And it's Konoha. I don't understand. What's going on? What's happening?_

_Another kunai. A fire jutsu. Why is he trying to kill me? Wait. You're what? Here to assassinate the demon? Tsunade-sama's orders? But why? I don't understand!_

_Fine. I'll just have to kill you before you can kill me! First I'll knock you around a little with my U-zu-ma-ki Naruto Rendan. How about a Rasengan you bastard? And then I'll break your face while you're lying there in pain._

_Your mask. But, I know you. You're… You're… IRUKA-SENSEI! WHY? Why Iruka-sensei. You were the only one I truly trusted and respected! I can't believe this. Why?_

_What do you mean? You wanted to kill me? But… I didn't kill your parents! Kyuubi no Kitsune did! It wasn't me. Yondaime put it in me! I never asked for the demon._

_Please. Please. Please. Iruka-sensei. Those eyes. Don't look at me with those eyes. Everyone else looks at me with those eyes. Not you too. Please. Don't call me that name with your eyes._

**Bakemono.**_ I'm not. _**Bakemono.**_ Please! I'm not! _**Bakemono.**_ I'm not a fucking… _**Monster!**_ You… I… I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT A MONSTER I CAN BE!_

_I'll show you all the power of a bakemono. I'll show you what I can do. What this Kyuubi inside of me can do for me. I'll finish what it started here in Konoha all those years ago. I'll destroy this village._

_I'll start with Sasuke and Sakura-chan. Kakashi-sensei. Those who put me down. Kiba and Shino. Shikamaru and Chouji and Ino. Neji and Lee. Jiraiya. Tsunade. And even all those poor defenseless villagers with no way of defending themselves from the Kyuubi. There's no Yondaime to stop me now. No one who can seal away what I, the Great Uzumaki Naruto has released upon this hidden village. _

_Nothing can ever stop me now._

_Especially you, Iruka-sensei. Are you dead yet? I'll hop down to where I left you before this rampage. Oh. You're still alive. I'll just have to rip out your heart then, won't I? Look Iruka-sensei, its still beating in my hand._

_No. No. This can't be. No. I don't believe it. You're not Iruka-sensei. Damn you! Damn you straight to the fiery pits of Hell where you belong, Kabuto. BASTARD! You tricked me. How could you trick me! I've killed everyone who ever knew me. I've ruined everything. Killed those I wanted to protect. No. No. I refuse to believe this. No. No. No. No. No._

"NO!"

Gaara jumped, startled by the sudden outburst from the unconscious boy. When he looked up, Naruto was sitting straight up in his bed crying. Without thinking, he reached for the blue button to alert the nurses. Tears streamed down his face. Suddenly the blond boy wrapped his arms around himself and screamed as the pain from moving caught up with him. Blue eyes met Gaara's and pleaded with his own.

"Forgive me. I didn't mean to kill everyone."

"It was a nightmare," Gaara said in an almost reassuring tone. He was inexperienced in comforting someone and didn't know how to react. He sat very still while he watched Naruto cry from the dream and from the pain he was in. Gaara smelt in the air that some of the wounds Naruto suffered had reopened and were bleeding again. He told the other boy to lie back down.

A nurse entered frantically. She also tried to get Naruto to lie back down. Eventually he did as she slowly guided his head back to the pillow. She told his that everything was going to be alright. Everything was okay now. The Hokage was on her way to see Naruto immediately. Gaara silently wondered if the Hokage had the time to rush to see one little genin. He wondered if this was just a way to comfort someone.

Naruto turned his sad eyes to Gaara. With the last of the strength he had left, the Konoha ninja asked one small favor of the Suna ninja.

"Help me. Please."

Gaara failed to reply before Naruto passed out again. He wondered if Naruto meant to help him with the pain or the nightmare. Perhaps both.

He whispered to the sleeping boy, "You've already helped me so much. I'd do anything for you."

The redhead hesitantly brushed away a lock of golden hair from the other boys face. His hand snapped back as the door opened again and he realized the nurse was still in the room. His face became hard and he stood up. With a determined look in his eyes, he walked from the room. Brushing past the newcomer, who he later realized upon reflection, was the Godaime Hokage.

Gaara walked, simply because he didn't think it would be proper to show up out of breath to the Hokage's office for a meeting. He had things to settle between Suna and Konoha. Many diplomatic things to discuss. And one very, very important thing he wished to tell the kunoichi leader. Something that would be a peace offering to Konoha but still fulfill his personal interests.

He waited there patiently for over an hour for the Hokage to return. When she did, she invited him into her office. She did not look at him, nor did she greet him the way she should a diplomat. Instead, she just waved him in without a word.

They began discussing relations. Gaara apologized many times in the name of his village. He said that he had thought of many ways to restore relations between the two ninja villages. Tsunade agreed to most of them, turn down a few others that she believed were just self-punishment of Sunagakure. Gaara saved the best one he had thought of yet for last. He took a deep breath and prepared himself.

"Hokage-sama," he began with determination, "I have one last proposal for you. However, if you refuse, then I will refuse to complete any of the things we have previously discussed in this room."

Tsunade blinked, mouth wide. "What gives you the right to make that remark? And what is so important that you would risk Suna and Konoha's relationship?"

"I wish to be a test subject of yours. I will agree to whatever tests you need to perform in order to better understand Naruto-kun's situation. You can perform tests on me. On my demon. Anything you need. On two conditions. You figure out how to seal Shukaku like Kyuubi is sealed. And you heal Uzumaki Naruto.

Tsunade stood from behind her desk. She was shocked beyond belief. All the things she had heard about this boy… and then he does something like this. She was befuddled. She was flabbergasted. She was in awe. Never in a million years had she thought Sabaku no Gaara would even think about agreeing to be tested upon, possibly painfully, to save another's life.

When she came to her senses, she immediately agreed with a big "OF COURSE I AGREE TO THAT!"

And so, Gaara stood. Proclaimed that the meeting was over and that he was going back to the hospital. That's where he would be all night and tomorrow. She knew which room to find him in of course. Naruto's. In the midst of it all, Tsunade completely forgot to ask what happened when the said hospitalized boy woke up.


	3. Visiting Hours

"I told you for the last time. I'm. Not. Leaving!"

Temari shuddered and grabbed her older brother's arm as a warning to him. She knew that tone of voice and she didn't like it. It was pure murder. No sane person with the will to live would want to be around Gaara when his voice became dark as it had. The blonde sand-nin slowed backed out of the room tugging on Kankuro's black sleeve and keeping her eyes on her little brother's back.

"Check in later," was Kankuro's final comment.

Gaara sat like that for a while. He couldn't keep his eyes off the other demon vessel. The redhead knew that sooner or later the Hokage would come and find him. The tests would begin and he couldn't visit with Naruto because he would most likely be bed ridden after all the things the team of medical-nin did to him. For now, all that Gaara wanted to do was talk to Naruto in the few chances that he got. Naruto was waking up more often, which would have been good if the boy wasn't experiencing more and more pain and passing out faster each time.

Throughout the morning, Gaara noticed the door open behind him and shut again. He occasionally heard a voice or two lashing out at the nurses for not letting them visit with Naruto because he already had one visitor and could only have two at a time. The redhead figured that the nurses and Naruto's friends were too scared to try and kick him out, didn't want to sit in the room the psychotic Sand-nin alone, or both.

The nurses had attempted to throw him out over the night a few times but failed at even making Gaara budge an inch. He didn't even glance at them. One male nurse had threatened to get the Hokage, at which Gaara commented that she knew he was there. He never found out if the nurse checked with the scary blonde woman, but they hadn't tried anything after that. Gaara sat there all night, staring at the boy in front of him and making sure that he was comfortable as possible in a hospital bed.

Every time Naruto had woken up, which was only twice, Gaara was forced to call the nurses into the room. He calmed Naruto down in the only way that he knew how to, just talking to him a bit. Every time the nurses arrived, Naruto had already went back to sleep. So far, the only person to actually hear Naruto speak more than a few words was Gaara. The nurses wanted to keep a staff member in there watching him, but Gaara had scared the poor girl off when he threatened to silence her snoring with his Sabaku Kyuu.

Gaara was content to just sit there watching Naruto in silence.

hr

Four people sat outside of Naruto's room. They took turns peeking in to see if that murderer was gone yet and to make sure that he hadn't killed Naruto. They barely said a single word to each other. All four of them were content to sit that way. It let them reflect on a lot of things, like why Naruto—who was known to heal extra fast—was still in the hospital nearly a month after he was put in there. Only one of them had been able to figure it out so far, that's why he was made a Chuunin after all.

Shikamaru had seen Naruto fight more than a couple times now. He watched as Naruto had called upon a dark power that was not his own by talking to something within him. Shikamaru was a genius, but it still didn't take all that much to figure out exactly what the Yondaime Hokage had done with the Kyuubi no Kitsune instead of killing it. And that fact amazed Shikamaru, not the demon being inside his classmate, but the other thing that he had figured out… The Yondaime sealed a demon into his own fucking son. _"What a father…"_

Next to Shikamaru was the boy the Chuunin and his team had risked their lives for because of his stupidity. Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke sat there in silence for another reason. He hadn't been able to speak since Naruto slashed his throat with those claws that appeared when the dark chakra started leaking from the blond. The Godaime Hokage said that with therapy and additional cosmetic healing he should be able to speak again. She wasn't rushing to heal him and it was obvious that she showed no sympathy for what Naruto had done to him. Sasuke wanted his voice back for one reason. To apologize to Naruto. He wanted to do whatever he could to fix what had happened to his teammate. All of it was his fault. Naruto used that special power for too long and completely drained himself of everything he had to make Sasuke see sense in what he was doing. He only wanted to apologize to the boy who had become his brother.

Sakura was next to Sasuke. She was quiet because she had nothing to say to break that silence. She doubted that any of them would reply anyway. At first, when Sasuke had come back, she had experienced a level of joy that she couldn't even comprehend. The joy vanished when she saw his torn throat. She wanted to yell at Naruto for going that far. Sasuke had looked at her with such sad eyes as soon as she mentioned Naruto's name. He refused to look at her after that. Sakura ran to Naruto's room as quickly as she could. After Sasuke was released, she took him to Naruto's room before they went to eat lunch. Most of the time they ended up eating ramen and think about Naruto in silence. Yesterday, Sakura had a mission and found out that Sasuke hadn't left his bed the entire day. She decided to come early to visit with Sasuke and already found Shikamaru sitting outside the room. She threw a fit at the desk about i that /i evil guy who tried to kill her and Naruto and Sasuke sitting in her teammate's room. The nurses did nothing about any of it. So she sat there jumping between fuming mad at the nurses and worried sick about Naruto.

The next visitor had arrived only a few minutes beforehand. He said nothing to anyone as he sat down. However, he had kept rummaging through the piles of letters and gifts he had brought with him. He looked rather embarrassed to be holding it all but would never admit it. Lee had given him some of the stuff to bring, Tenten had written a letter to Naruto, Hinata-sama had given him the thickest envelope and the largest package to bring with him. Neji himself had actually written a letter to Naruto and told him that he'd buy him as many bowls of ramen he wanted just so long as he was out of the hospital soon. The Hyuuga boy was rather fidgety sitting there. He didn't know the others well enough to talk to them and he wouldn't know how to hold up the conversation well anyway. Lee couldn't come with him because of his injuries fighting Gaara and that bone guy while trying to rescue Sasuke. "_What was that guy's name? Never mind." _Tenten had been training so much that she was lying in bed at home. Her mother forced her to stay there. Hinata-sama was too shy to come. She probably would have fainted at seeing the bandages anyway. Neji tried to think of everything except the boy lying in the room behind him. His attempt failed as he started seeing those strong eyes in his mind and then remembering when he was told that Naruto was in the hospital and he probably wasn't going to make it. Neji barely made it himself. He figured that if he could recover so fast, Fate would have been much kinder to Naruto and the younger boy would already be sneaking out of the hospital to eat ramen. Neji was honestly worried.

Everyone looked up immediately as a woman with short dark hair entered Naruto's room. They heard muffled talking between the woman and Gaara. Shikamaru was grateful for Naruto's sake that the other's weren't close enough to hear them talking about healing Naruto's demon. He didn't know how the other's would react if they knew about the Kyuubi. The two walked out and the conversation was then heard by all.

"First, Tsunade-sama wishes to run blood tests on the both of you. Then she hopes that you'll agree to be examined using chakra. Will you?"

"Yes, Shizune-san. As I've said before. I agree to anything you wish to do to me."

"You realized that the blood work will be the painless part. Everything past that will be more and more painful. If you ever wish for us to stop, all you have to do is say so and both the Hokage and I will understand."

"Yes, Shizune-san. I agree to everything. No matter how much pain. I only wish to save his life. He's already saved me so much."

"As you wish."

And the two disappeared around the corner towards the laboratory leaving behind four very confused friends.

Shikamaru, being the least confused, rose to his feet and entered Naruto's room. He sat and talked to his sleeping friend. He wished him well and told him that Ino was working on a very special flower arrangement for his room, as if she hadn't made enough. He ordered Naruto to stop being so troublesome and just wake up. He told him that he accepted the demon within him even though the Kyuubi was troublesome too.

Sasuke and Sakura were next. Sasuke sat and touched his friend's hand and talked to him in his mind about how sorry he was. Sakura rambled off what happened on her mission to him and told Naruto all about what he was missing out on. How she was taking lessons from Tsunade-sama now. She said that he had to get better fast so that he could train with her to see how good she's gotten. Naruto lie there, as still as death while Sakura tried to smile while talking to him. Sasuke wished for a miracle to put things back to the way they used to be before the whole mess with Orochimaru.

Lastly, Neji was allowed to enter. He said nothing and only looked on sadly as Naruto lay still on his bed. He set the letters and gifts down on the table next to Naruto's bed. He didn't spend any time talking to Naruto. He didn't waste time cursing the Fate that he knew didn't exist. Naruto proved that. He just smiled at the boy and left. Naruto was strong. Stronger than anyone or anything he had ever faced before. Neji knew that he'd be better in no time. It was guaranteed.

After everyone had left, Naruto had woken up to find no one there. He couldn't reach the button. He couldn't move because of pain. But he did see all of the new gifts and flowers in the room. Naruto's last thought before falling back asleep was about being happy that he wasn't alone and forgotten.


	4. Nikuman

Gaara had thought that he could handle all this. Then they took his gourd away, so he got nervous. He still believed that he wouldn't be scared of anything to come. Then they strapped him down to a table. That's when he realized that he was absolutely petrified. He had no idea what that woman was actually going to do to him. The Hokage wasn't going to be doing to first few tests herself. Instead, she sent her attendant to do the first few tests while she passed out missions.

"_As if I'm not terrified enough,_" Gaara thought as he tried to keep a hard face.

"The first one is simple," Shizune began, "I'm going to stick this needle into your vein carefully and extract some of your blood. That's the easy one that I'm doing today. I'll run tests on those compared to Naruto's later. We're going to check to see if there is a trace of the demon in your DNA so that we can trace it through Naruto to reach the demon. After that, I'm going to thoroughly examine your chakra flow. To do that, I'm going to have to feel around with my chakra. It will be painful, I warn you. That will take the longest. The last thing we're doing today is checking around on how your demon was sealed. With your and Shukaku's chakra charts, we might be able to figure out how to fuse the two together leaving you in control of everything."

Gaara nodded. He tried not to show that he feared being defenseless without his sand confined to this table. Suna and Konoha had not officially become allied nations again. There was no telling what they could actually do to him. Gaara hushed the voices in his mind. He knew somewhere within that they wouldn't let true harm come to him because they wanted to help Naruto and he was certain the Hokage wanted their ally back in the current weakened state.

Gaara watched in fascination as the woman leaked blood from him into little tubes. She set one aside and attached another. Blood squirted out in a straight stream into the next tube. He chuckled when he saw that, making Shizune give him a strange look. Five minutes and 7 tubes later, all the blood needed was taken from Gaara. Since the wound was so small, she didn't bother to heal it which was all for the better because Shukaku's chakra swarmed to the point and did the healing for her.

Shizune prepared Gaara for the next round. She had previously had him change into a basic hospital gown. The woman began massaging Gaara with a little chakra to get him to relax as much as possible. She wished that she could give him something to take away the pain but feared that it would alter the experiments. Shizune decided that the best course of action would be to go for it without warning so that the boy had to time to tense back up with fear and nervousness.

She extended her chakra from her fingers tips like long needles. It was at a time like this that she wished that she could use a bloodline trait like the Byakugan to do this for the least amount of time possible. Suddenly, she shoved her fingers onto Gaara. The redhead screamed in pain as she traced her chakra throughout it body, attempting to follow the flows.

"_Is this what pain truly feels like? Is this how Naruto feels? I must not give in to it!_" Gaara thought as she prodded through his body with thin sharp knives.

Gaara didn't know how much more he could take of the pain. He'd never felt anything like it before. He had completely underestimated what he had inflicted on others. It was a learning experience. Or at least that's how Gaara saw it. He could now place himself in the shoes of those great many that he squeezed to death with his sand. All of the blood in his sand now had much more of a meaning to him. He couldn't believe that he had done this to others and fully enjoyed it.

The pain was unbearable. His body twitched and spasmed every time Shizune's fingers would travel a tiny bit more. It felt like she was severing all the nerves in his body. The worst part was she would stop and withdraw to write something down, then plunge her chakra right back into his body. After the fifth time she did that, Gaara found he couldn't hold himself back anymore. He screamed at the top of his lungs. He pushed on the straps holding him down. But when Shizune asked if he wished to stop, his answer would always be a firm 'NO!'

Gaara can't remember anything of moving from the laboratory to a hospital room. He just assumes that he passed out. If he passed out, he then wonder's about Shukaku. Did his demon come out? Did he hurt anyone? Did the demon eat more of him? He can't really remember any of it. All Gaara knows right now is that he is in pain.

Temari and Kankuro notice that their little brother has woken up after only an hour of being there. They had come to look for him because he had not checked in as he was supposed to. Temari had questioned the nurse about Gaara still being in the hospital. The lady had informed her that Gaara was still there but he was unable to accept visitors at the moment. Frightened, the siblings interrogated the nurse until she finally told them about Gaara agreeing to be a test subject. Kankuro forced her to tell them what room their little brother was in and they ran as fast as they could to him.

When the pair arrived at the room, the first thing they realized was that it was Uzumaki's room. They assumed the nurse had given them the wrong number. That is, until they noticed the almost lifeless body in the next bed over covered by a dividing wall. Gaara lay there looking paler than normal. His body was covered in small bandages that concealed holes and chakra burns that Shizune left by lingering too long in one area. Needless to say, Temari and Kankuro were burning with fury.

At the time Gaara had awoke, the pair rattled off questions and concerns. "How could you do this?" "Are you alright?" "What possessed you… you know what I mean…" "Please be okay…" "Why would you let yourself endure this?" "I don't understand!" "How are you?" "You're an idiot." "Why would you let yourself be hurt for someone else? It's not like you at all."

"Shut up. You'd never understand," was Gaara's only statement.

The two decided that they were going to get him something to eat because he looked like he needed something hearty in him to get him healing. Gaara enjoyed the silence for a good half hour. After that half hour was up, he heard two pairs of footsteps enter the room. He assumed that his brother and sister were back with that food they promised him. Gaara's stomach growled in anticipation. He hadn't realized he had actually been so hungry. When was the last time he ate? He couldn't remember, and that was most definitely a bad sign.

The footsteps never came near him though. They stopped at the first bed. He heard a female voice whispering something that he couldn't quite make out. He did catch a few words here and there: please, better, so sorry, ramen, as much as, my fault, shouldn't have, none of this, we love you, back to us, NARUTO! So, he was in the second bed in Naruto's room. And that girl that was talking… that must have been Haruno-san. Gaara pondered for a while what he should do. Should he remain quiet? Not let her see him like this? Did she still hate him for what his demon did to her? Who was the other person with her? Gaara decided.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"What? Who is that?" Sakura asked.

"Me. Open the wall."

"Gaara? Why are you here? Like this?"

Gaara opened his eyes. Then he saw the other person that was with her, holding her hand, Uchiha Sasuke. Gaara stared into both of their eyes. His curious thirst was now quenched. He had confirmed who was visiting Naruto. His eyes traveled to the Uchiha's neck, bandages were wrapped around it heavily. Then, that curiosity was back. He hadn't heard much of what had happened to Sasuke. Gaara only knew that he had come back in a worse condition than Naruto but healed faster.

"What happened to you," Gaara directed at Sasuke.

He fully expected a smart-assed comment to come back at him from the dark-haired boy. Instead, Sasuke's eyes flashed an indiscernible pain before he lowered them to the ground. The boy touched his neck and thought about Naruto, those wild red eyes glaring at him as he made another nasty remark about his fighting. He recalled Naruto howling as he charged Sasuke for the last time and slashed at his neck, ripping his throat open. Sasuke winced, but calmed down as Sakura put an arm around his shoulders.

"He can't talk anymore," Sakura stated bluntly. "It happened during his fight with Naruto…"

"Naruto… he can be scary. I've fought him."

Sasuke just nodded.

"But somehow… he has a special power. Not the extra power. He can change us all. He'd do anything for his precious people. He has the power to turn people's lives around and make existing worthwhile," Gaara pointed out.

Sakura and Sasuke nodded in agreement to that.

After a moment of silence, the doors opened again. Temari and Kankuro were startled to find Gaara talking to people without threatening to kill them. Something had changed in their little brother and they finally realized it. Kankuro remembered Gaara apologizing to them after Gaara's fight with Naruto. Temari remembered Gaara thanking her for cooking breakfast the morning after that incident.

Gaining her composure, Temari walked over to the three of them and smiled at them. After all, they were allies now, weren't they?

"You two are lucky, I bought five meat nikuman. That's all that they had left. I guess we can each have one now," she said offering an open back to the group.

Sasuke refused without words, semi-offending Temari.

"Sasuke can't eat solids until after his surgery in two days. His throat can't handle it," Sakura offered. "I'll still have one. Thank you very much."

"I'll eat Uchiha's share," Gaara stated, leaving no room for question. He explained, "I don't remember eating in the past few days."

Temari and Kankuro frowned in worry and offered their share to Gaara, too. He refused, saying that two was more than enough for him. It would fill him up fast. The four ate while Sasuke watched. A questioned bother Sasuke during that time. He desperately wanted to ask, but had no way to do so. Why was Gaara here in the hospital?

"I know what you all want to ask. Why am I here? Why do I care so much? Why am I letting this happen to me?"

They all looked at Gaara and slowly nodded.

"It has something to do with what Naruto once told me about precious people. If someone or something is precious to you, you have to protect anyway that you can. That's why I'm letting myself be tested on. On top of that, they promised to seal away my demon."

"You really do have a demon inside of you then," Sakura gasped. "I thought it was people just saying things. Why? How? Who would put a demon into someone? What's the point in that..? You must have had a terrible childhood know that that thing is inside of you. I just… wow. I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm sorry. I'm probably bringing up some bad memories, aren't I? I just don't know what to say…"

"If you think that… think of how Naruto must feel, too," Gaara demanded barely above a whisper.

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened at that statement. What could he mean by that? Sure, Naruto had no parents. He grew up alone. But he wasn't feared… or was he? He wasn't tormented by… the villagers always called him names. The children picked up on it. No one was allowed to play with Naruto, the parents forbid it. That could only mean one thing…

"How is it that you're helping Naruto get better by being tested on," Sakura asked warily.

"No body has tried to heal a demon before," Gaara stated matter-of-factly. "The Kyuubi no Kitsune inside of him is near death and killing him as well because of how long he used the demon's chakra fighting Sasuke. They're testing me to study demon vessels and how to heal a demon inside of someone."

"Kyuubi… no… Kitsune…" Sakura stuttered.

To Sasuke, things suddenly started to click together in his mind. He walked over to Naruto. He remembered the fight during the Chuunin Exams against Orochimaru. "_Scaredy-cat?_" He understood how Naruto defeated Haku at the bridge all that time ago. He realized exactly why Naruto was so determined to become Hokage and gain respect and recognition. He knew why Naruto hid behind those painful smiles. He understood why Naruto had wanted to be his friend but could never bring himself to ask when they were children. He understood everything about Naruto now. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and remembered those nails tearing through him, but he didn't shudder. Sasuke just understood.

"Naruto… has the Kyuubi inside of him? Why did he never tell us," Sakura muttered to no one.

"Fear. Fear of becoming someone like me," Gaara offered, knowing full well the question was rhetorical. "He could have. But he is so much stronger than me. So much stronger."

Gaara sat in silence the rest of the time as he finished his nikuman. Sasuke's eyes never left Naruto's face. Eventually, Sakura noticed the sun setting in the sky and pulled Sasuke away from Naruto, they had to go home. Kankuro and Temari were happily chatting to each other from opposite sides of Gaara's bed. A nurse came eventually and made them leave. She hadn't realized they were still there and visiting had been over for two hours.

So that left Gaara awake, in pain every time he moved. Lying so still on the bed made him go numb so he had to move. It was a tough situation. In the bed next to him, Naruto was lucky to be asleep. He didn't have to feel the pain in his sleep nor did he have to be restless like Gaara. It was hard for him to just sit there doing nothing. So Gaara decided that the best solution would be to concentrate on healing as fast as possible so that more tests could be done and they'd find a way to cure Naruto quickly. It was the first time that he actually talked with Shukaku of his own free will. As Gaara had said, he'd do anything to protect his precious person.


	5. Blood

Gaara was startled out of his reverie in the dark night. Naruto was screaming in pain. Gaara was scrambling in his mind to figure out what to do. He needed to act fast. Moving over to Naruto wasn't an option because he would make his wounds start bleeding again. Shukaku was reluctant to spare any power to heal his container.

"Naruto! I'm over here," Gaara called from his bed.

"Where? I can't see you. Please come closer," Naruto cried out. "I can't move. It hurts so much. Oh god it hurts. Why does it hurt so much?"

"Hold on. I'm coming," Gaara grunted. He climbed off the bed, re-opening half-healed holes in his flesh. "Ah!" He cried. He stiffly waddled over. Gaara fought tears. He had never known pain such as this. It was unbelievable that the human body could feel this way and still be alive. "I'm coming," he choked out between gasps of pain.

"Gaara," Naruto weakly sobbed. "Why are you..?"

"It's alright. Shizune-san just ran a few tests on me. I'll be fine in the morning. Hey, I'm here. You can calm down now. You're not alone."

"It hurts. Why does it hurt so much?"

"It's your demon. Can't you tell how injured he is?"

Naruto stared at Gaara from eyes squinted in pain. "Gaara, help me."

The redhead watched as Naruto squirmed, trying to get away from the pain. Naruto fought tears every time a joint of his body so much as twitched. Gaara was lost. He was never one to comfort people in pain. Hell, he usually was the one who caused the pain the people were feeling. He supposed that he could somewhat understand what the blonde was going through currently. Gaara felt blood dripping down his legs from the stressed injuries. He winced but quickly brought his hard face back up. He moved around the bed to the chair.

"Gaara… I talked to Kyuubi… I'm so scared."

"I'm going to help you. That's what the tests are for."

"What if I die? I can't bear this pain much longer. I don't want to go back to sleep. If I go to sleep… I might die. I'm so scared. I'm so scared."

Naruto was full out crying now. Gaara thought he'd never been more scared in his life. He might know how to comfort someone in pain a little, but now Naruto was talking about being scared of death. All Gaara knew of that was fear of inexistence. Was it truly the same as fearing death? Gaara compared the two and came to the conclusion that it was really different.

"I don't know what to do," Gaara confessed.

"Just keep me awake. Any way that you can," Naruto whimpered.

Gaara looked around frantically trying to think of something to keep Naruto awake like he wanted to be. His eye caught the pile of presents and letters left by people while Naruto was unconscious. A brilliant idea came to him then.

"Would you like me to read these letters to you?"

Naruto only nodded. Gaara pulled the top one off the stack. It was from Sakura.

"Naruto," Gaara began. "A lot has happened in these three weeks. I've been training under Tsunade-sama so that I can get stronger. I'm also becoming a medical-nin. I've learned so much in such a short amount of time. It's coming so easy to me. I just want you to know. It's you who made me do this. You're the one who inspired me to become stronger. When I couldn't stop Sasuke from leaving and you brought him back in less than a day, I knew I had to do something to improve myself.

"Sasuke has taken to eating ramen because of his throat. It's the only thing he can swallow right now. His surgery will be soon. I've been assigned by Tsunade-sama to watch over him all day. Because of how fast I picked up healing, she trusts me to watch over one of her special patients.

"Naruto, you have to come back to us. You're the strongest person in this entire village. If you don't get better soon, I'm going to find some forbidden healing jutsu and kick your ass after I make you better. Please. Naruto. Stay strong for all of us who believe in you. Love, Sakura"

Naruto had tears in his eyes from something other than pain by this point and was sniffling. He couldn't believe the words Sakura had said to him. They were sweet and kind, like the things only Iruka-sensei had told him.

"Are you alright? Should I continue reading more," Gaara asked.

Naruto nodded. Gaara picked up the next letter.

"Hey dobe. Get better. Now. Or I'll just have to continue berating myself constantly all day long for the rest of my life. I'm sorry, Naruto. It's entirely my fault. I'm an idiot. I never should have run off like that. I never should have sought Orochimaru's for power. You stopped me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can never thank you enough. I'll never be able to apologize enough either for getting you into that state. You have to get better. Who else is worthy of being my rival? My best friend? My brother? I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I'll never blame you for my injuries. It's all me. I did this to myself. I'm just so sorry about everything. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. Please. Get well soon. I need a training partner so that I can get stronger and help you kick Orochimaru's ass, not like you need the help. I think you're already more powerful than the Legendary Sannin. Keep that in mind. Be strong. Get out of that bed now dobe before I pass you up again in power. From Sasuke."

Naruto chuckled through his tears, then cried out in pain from moving too much. Gaara put his hand on Naruto's to calm him down. Naruto weakly smiled at Gaara, trying to tell him that the pain wasn't that bad. He could bear it. He had to, or else he'd be letting his friends down.

"What about those boxes," Naruto asked.

Gaara nodded and started opening them. The first box was small. It was wrapped in a shiny pink paper that was decorated with little rabbits. This was a gift from Tenten. Gaara slowly opened it and held it so that Naruto could watch him without having to move. He lifted the lid off the box after discarding the paper and held it towards Naruto so that the bedridden boy could see the gift before he did. Naruto's eyes widened. Gaara looked too.

The box held a small scroll that had Tenten's writing on the outside of it. Underneath the scroll, the pair found a set of three hand forged kunai with Tenten's name writing on the inside of the ring on the weapons. There was a short note also from the girl that read, "Redeem this coupon for two straight weeks of vigorous 8 hours a day weapon training from Tenten. You better get better and use these, or else I'll be offended."

Naruto chuckled at the girl. She barely even knew him and yet she was doing this for him and going out of her way to worry about him. She was tricking him into getting better faster because she must have known that Naruto was a sucker for anything to make him stronger so that he could be the best and become Hokage.

"Smart girl," Gaara thought out loud.

Gaara put the box, with the scroll, kunai, and note aside in a separate pile. The next box he picked up was an unwrapped green box with yellow ribbon tied around it messily that was unimaginably heavy. Gaara struggled with untying the thick ribbons. When he finally did manage to get them off, he took the lid off and held the box towards Naruto the same as he had with Tenten's present. The box contained a set of ankle and wrist bands that they assumed were weights. A small note card with a lotus on the front was crinkled between the weights. Gaara read the card aloud to Naruto, "Naruto-kun, please accept this gift for training. As soon as we both get better, I'll show you how to use these properly. I hope you like them, I think blue is definitely your color. See you soon, Rock Lee."

Gaara felt a twinge of guilt at being reminded that he was the reason Lee was hospitalized in the first place. However, he did save him from that Kimimaro person. It wasn't atonement enough. Naruto however was just fine lying there watching Gaara read his letters and open his presents for him. A small smile, a true smile, actually appeared on Naruto's face. Gaara was frightened by his sudden urge to freeze time to keep that smile on Naruto's face forever.

Gaara picked up the next letter and began reading, "Uzumaki. Heal faster, bastard. Oh so sincerely, Nara Shikamaru. P.S. Chouji and Ino send their regards."

Gaara and Naruto sat looking at each other for a good minute before Naruto burst out laughing. He alternately cackled and said "ow" for each movement he made caused more pain. Gaara actually let out a small chuckle but covered it with his hand. Naruto exclaimed that that was just like Shikamaru to say. It apparently showed that he was concerned but he didn't put much effort into it, as he would for anything. However, Naruto explained that because he actually took the time to write just that, it showed that Shikamaru actually cared about Naruto's well being.

After Naruto finished his spiel about Shikamaru being a great guy, Gaara picked up a small package that was very carefully wrapped in dark blue paper and light blue ribbons. It was obvious that the giver had taken his or her time with it and it was very special. Seeing that, Gaara took consideration in neatly untying and unwrapping the present for Naruto. Inside was a small jar of ointment and a dark blue paper crane. After taking that out, Gaara found a letter written on precisely fold crisp white paper. The handwriting was elegant but legible.

"Naruto-kun," Gaara started reading, "I am sorry that I cannot give this to you in person. I have a fear of people in bandages as you know. I would just pass out when I see you like that. I hope this ointment helps you in some way. I came up with the recipe myself and spent lots of time researching every ingredient to make it just right. Please accept this pain killing ointment. I hope that I can see you after you get better and you can tell me if it works well. Naruto-kun, you have motivated me to become stronger and try my hardest at everything I do. If this illness conquers you, I believe the hope and inspiration of many people in the village will be destroyed. It may be selfish to ask this, but please get better soon for all of us. With optimism, Hyuuga Hinata. P.S. Please wear gloves when applying the ointment. My hands went numb while making it. I apologize for the messy handwriting."

"Hinata… she called me an inspiration."

"That's because you are, Naruto. Look at me as a prime example. I've changed, and it's all because of you."

"Really," Naruto asked in wonder.

Gaara just nodded and handed Naruto the special ointment that Hinata had made. That's where Gaara messed up. He hadn't realized that all of the moving around and opening the things for Naruto had actually hurt him that much. The pain had become something he had pushed to the back of his mind for Naruto's sake. His mistake, handing Naruto the ointment with a blood covered hand. Blood that dripped onto Naruto's sheets. Blood that made Naruto pale. Blood that Gaara should have noticed before so that Naruto wouldn't become worried about him.

"Gaara! What happened? Why are you bleeding?"

Naruto sat up and finally took the whole picture in, all while gasping in pain. Gaara was sitting there covered in bandages. His hospital gown was soaked in spots of blood. Blood had pooled on the floor at the redhead's feet. The red had even seeped into the chair that he was sitting on. It looked at though someone had tried to murder him, and there he was just sitting there opening Naruto's presents for him and reading his letters. Naruto had never felt more disgusted with himself and so selfish. How could Gaara sit here and do this to himself while Naruto happily lied there in his bed?

"Answer me! Why are doing this?"

"For you," was Gaara's only answer.

Gaara stood up and tried to get Naruto to lie back down. He pushed him back to the bed as gently as he possibly could. Gaara pressed him lips tightly together. He wondered if he should tell Naruto what he was letting the medical team here do to him so that Naruto could be healed. He decided against it because he knew that Naruto would just worry more. Even though, he knew that knowing that someone would go through that just to help Naruto would probably make him feel a little more cherished. He was brought out of his thoughts when he realized that Naruto was still yelling at him.

"Go to sleep, Naruto," Gaara ordered. "I'll read you more letters when you wake up. I'll watch over you, don't worry."

"But… I don't understand. Please… explain…" and Naruto promptly fell back asleep at Gaara's command.

As the Sand-nin promised, he sat back down in the blood soaked chair and watched over Naruto. Strangely, his wounds weren't closing back up. Gaara decided to try and sink into a meditation to let his body take care of him. What he didn't count on was that losing blood sometimes made people pass out, which is exactly what he did at that moment.

Gaara found himself deep inside his mind. He didn't know where he had actually gone. He moved forward towards a steady breathing that he heard. When the light came to the breathing object, he found Shukaku towering above him. Gaara panicked. Nothing was holding the demon back from devouring him some more. Except, Shukaku had his eyes closed and was breathing raggedly. One of those monster's eyes opened in a squint and Gaara jumped back.

"You bastard," Shukaku cried in his 'funky' voice. "You let that wench do this to me! You thought that she was just examining you didn't you! No! She got me too! Bastard! I'll get you for this… Just as soon as I heal myself! Damn it! Why can't I heal? This isn't working! You did this to me on purpose didn't you? You're trying to kill me and get me out of you, isn't that it? Stupid child! If I die, you die too! I'm not letting you get rid of me that easily."

Gaara stood and stared. Was it just him or was Shukaku getting wavy? Maybe he was just dizzy. Gaara fell to his knees on the black floor of his mind. Shukaku squinted at him in question. Everything became blurry and he couldn't see anything anymore. He could feel his face smash against the cold floor and that was his last physical sensation.

"Am I dying," he asked Shukaku. "Help me."

Shukaku felt himself also start to fade away. He started panicking.

"Hey! Hey! Hey," That funky voice shouted. "It works opposite! If you die, I die too! Bastard! I don't have that much chakra left and you're making me heal you! Stupid child! I never liked you and now I think I hate you! Making me heal you, too. Idiot!"

Outside of his mind, it was then that the Hokage took the opportunity to walk in. She started shaking at the sight of the Sand boy drenched in blood and slumped over in the chair next to Naruto's bed. Bloody handprints were on Naruto's gown and sheets. The entire scene made her go into a state of shock. She thought that Naruto helped her get over the hemotophobia, but this was too much. Too much blood. Blood everywhere.

Shizune walked in behind her and gasped at the scene. Tsunade was frozen in time and her skin was pale and clammy. The young attendant called for nurses for an emergency. She was so confused, what had happened in here?

When the nurses got there, they gasped. They started to put Gaara on a stretcher to take him to an emergency room. He seemed in critical condition and needed immediate treatment. One nurse pulled the Godaime out of the room and sat her on the seats outside. She gave her some water to drink and tried to calm her down. Shizune checked Naruto for any injuries but found none to her relief. She ordered one of the nurses to fetch new sheets and a new gown for Naruto, to remove the chair, and clean up the blood all over the floor.

The team of three nurses, one woman monitoring Gaara and two men carrying him, existed the room and into the hallway. Just in time for Tsunade to gasp at the blood all over again. She began to hyperventilate. However, as soon as she did, Gaara's body seemed to start emitting steam from every hole in his body. The wounds slowly began closing up and the steam disappeared. As soon as every wound was closed, Gaara shot straight up on the stretcher and flipped himself off of it and knocked the nurses over in the process.

Gaara panted on all fours on the floor. He couldn't believe what just happened. He now knew why Naruto wasn't healing like he should. He just had to tell them. Then he could help heal the blonde quickly as he had promised. Gaara couldn't manage to get enough air in each time to get a whole sentence out. He had to tell them!

"Kyuubi… is not letting him heal… sucking chakra… Naruto not able to heal… Kyuubi stealing it… Kyuubi needs to heal Naruto… then demon can heal itself… Shukaku told me… showed me… Shizune hurt Shukaku… but now we're both healed… Shukaku tried healing himself first… but now healed me… and he's healed, too… That's how to fix Naruto…"

Again, Gaara experience the sensation of his face smacking into a cold hard surface. He lied there panting. Eventually, someone picked him up and brought him back to the hospital bed so that he could regain his energy.

Tsunade and Shizune sat outside the room talking after everything inside the room was taken care of. Two nurses were in the room, attending to both of the boys and making sure that no more harm came to either of them. It was most definitely a stress filled afternoon.

"It explains why the healing didn't work, Tsunade-sama. It also explains why Gaara wasn't healing either."

"True," Tsunade said placing her head in her hands. "But with Naruto unconscious, we can't tell him that he needs to get his demon to heal him before it can heal."

Tsunade sat with her hands buried deep in her hair. She couldn't think of anything. There was no way to communicate with the demon inside of her favorite genin. She didn't know what to do anymore. She felt like a useless Hokage and a failure at a medical ninja. Shizune also tried racking her brain to figure something out. They both knew that time was running out for Naruto, but didn't want to say it aloud.

"What can I do," Gaara asked, leaning against the doorway and scrunching his face in pain. "I promised I'd do anything to save him. Anything."

The three sat in silence, not knowing what the next move was. They were dealt a shitty hand and as everyone knew, Tsunade was a terrible gambler. Shizune slumped over more. Gaara glared at the women who were supposed to be leading this show. And Tsunade decided that the best hope was to look to another for an answer. She knew one Chuunin that was better than anyone else at figuring things out.

On the other side of the village, Nara Shikamaru, who was contently doing nothing but watching the clouds in his favorite spot, felt as if someone had just tossed the weight of the world on his shoulders. And then a white bird flew over his head.


	6. Troublesome

I honestly didn't want to put any of my little blurbs at the beginning and end of this story because I thought it would take away from the feeling of the story. However, I felt compelled to write this. I would like to thank EVERYONE who has commented and reviewed this fic on both Fanfictiondotnet and the Akki no Ai LJ community. I really appreciate all of you. I was really amazed by the 9 reviews for chapter 5! I'd respond to you all individually, but that would be a lot more than I wanted to write outside of the actual fic. Thank you all so very much. (And to answer the concerns, it's only SasuSaku if you make it look that way. I'm leaving it up to you guys because I really don't care how you take it. The focus is on Gaara and Naruto, remember?) You're feedback is what keeps me writing. Thanks.

* * *

Shikamaru certainly didn't expect to be called to the Hokage's office so early in the morning on a Sunday. He had no class to teach and new missions were never assigned on Sundays. On top of that, they wouldn't give him anything that could keep him from preparing for his class tomorrow. That had been an agreement between the Godaime and himself. So, it was apparent that the Chuunin was utterly confused when he stepped into the Hokage's office that warm partially cloudy morning—the kind Shikamaru liked best.

"Hokage-sama," he addressed the woman staring down at papers from behind her desk.

"Ah, you made it. Good. Good. Go ahead and sit down."

Shikamaru nodded and took a seat in front of the desk. He waited for her to tell him why he was called there. All the Hokage did was stare down at the papers and wrinkle her nose at them. He waited. She sighed and rubbed her brown. And waited. The blonde woman let out a loud sigh. And waited some more. Eventually, she looked back up at the boy who was growing very impatient. She realized she was just wasting time, but she was also having a hard time admitting that this 13 year old boy could figure the whole mess out when she could not. Tsunade studied his eyes for a moment before handing him the papers she had been looking over.

"What do you make of these?"

Shikamaru scanned over the papers. They were information about demon vessels after that. A few pages later, the boy found information about the sealed demons themselves and a page about all the demons' activities prior to being sealed. After a couple pages of that Shikamaru was surprised to find extensive records on all of Naruto's day-to-day activities beginning at birth. The last few pages were medical records of Naruto's and Sabaku no Gaara. Shikamaru was a bit sad to say that he wasn't surprised that he was asked to look over these.

"I think it's probably a little more than I want to know about Naruto," he sighed, and quickly added a "ma'am" before he got smacked.

"Be serious," the Hokage yelled. "A life of one of your former classmates and a very loyal Konoha Ninja is on the line here! We have no time for jokes! How dare you make light of this terrible situation!"

Shikamaru forced himself back further into the chair. He tried to sink into it at the Hokage was furiously scolding him. He rambled off apologies to try calming her down. He hadn't meant to come off as a terrible person for making the sarcastic joke. It was just his personality. He did care about what happened to Naruto, but it wasn't in his nature to be so actively involved in something.

After Tsunade worked out her rage and frustrations, she because chillingly quiet. It was as if she was pondering if Shikamaru was the right person to give this to. It seemed as though she had no faith in him and didn't trust him at all. The silence was just eating away at the boy. He decided to end it, but so did the Hokage.

"Now, this is something that is important to keep confidential and it may surprise you… Naruto has a demon sealed in him… I hope you understand…" Tsunade started but stopped after Shikamaru's first sentence.

"I'll do my best to help Naruto and his demon. You can count on me. I promise. I may be a lazy coward but it was my responsibility in the first place. I was leading the mission. If I had been stronger, none of this would have happened and Naruto and Sasuke both would be unharmed. As such, it is also my responsibility to make sure that they both recover properly," Shikamaru said with a determination she had only seen in one other boy his age who wanted to be the next Hokage.

Tsunade accepted this. She nodded to him that he could leave. Shikamaru then left the office to head back to his favorite spot. He kept the files safe under his arm as he made the short journey to that special bench of his.

When he arrived, he gave the papers a once over and sat and thought. Shikamaru decided after a minute of serious thought that he should examine every single detail in the records to find the link to healing Naruto. He read the documents so much that he believed that they were causing him to develop a headache. He needed a break, and the sun was starting to set. He decided to go visit his subject of study.

Gaara was sitting on the edge of his own bed when Shikamaru arrived in Naruto's hospital room. He slowly looked up at the Konoha Chuunin which in turn caused Shikamaru to nearly jump out of his shoes in fear. He distinctly recalled the last time he had met up with this boy in a hospital room. Shikamaru and Naruto barely prevented Gaara from killing Rock Lee. Barely. And now here he was, in yet another hospital room alone—with the exception of Naruto—with that murderer.

"The nurse said Uzumaki-kun didn't have any visitors," Shikamaru explained.

He was almost out the door when Gaara spoke up, "He doesn't really. I'm a patient."

Shikamaru nodded at the Sand-nin, "I see."

The pony-tailed boy debated inside himself for a while. Should he stay to observe Naruto? Should he leave and try to figure things out on his own? While comparing the positives and negatives in his mind, Gaara had managed to walk up into his face without him even realizing it. Some Chuunin he was! Shikamaru let his gaze run to Gaara's eyes. The redhead seemed to be testing him in some way. He felt uncomfortable under the studious stare of green eyes. What was Gaara's objective?

"Why do you have files on Naruto," questioned Gaara in a menacing voice.

"Hokage-sama gave them to me. It's a mission that was assigned me this morning."

"What's the mission?"

"Figure out how to get the Kyuubi no Kitsune to heal Naruto."

"You know about Naruto's demon? Since when?"

"Since I first met him. It was pretty simple to figure out if you listened to the adults. What really bothered me is what I found when I did some digging when I was bored. Did you know that his father sealed the demon in to his own son?"

"Impossible. The Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi."

"You're troublesome. That's precisely who I am talking about."

"I'm troublesome? You're the annoying one, barging in here demanding to just sit and watch Naruto so you can get some clue. What if I wanted to sleep?"

"I was going to leave…" Shikamaru explained.

"Now you don't care about Naruto enough to face me?"

"That's not what I meant. I'm doing everything I can to help Naruto recover," Shikamaru defended himself.

"I don't believe you," Gaara growled.

"I don't have time for this. Naruto's life is on the line here. Stop being a bother," Shikamaru sighed.

"I don't see how I'm a bother since I can provide you with first hand information about carrying a demon inside of me," Gaara sneered.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well then?"

"Well then what?"

"Aren't you going to tell me or are you just going to let Naruto waste away?"

Shikamaru was getting painfully bothered by this whole conversation. He just wanted to get the new information so that he can get Naruto healed faster. Gaara just seemed to be acting like an over-protective bastard against Shikamaru. The redhead didn't trust him, that was certain, but he could at least try to so they could both see this whole mess over with. Gaara glared at him and Shikamaru just rolled his eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell you anything that may be of use," Gaara began.

After an hour or so, Gaara stopped talking about everything that had happened to him in the past few days involving his demon. When he finished, he returned to his bed and sat on the edge as he had been previously sitting. Many solutions popped into Shikamaru's head, each dangerous, improbable, and completely unlikely to actually work. Even so, Shikamaru had an inkling about a certain scenario that popped into his head. Maybe it was just something to laugh at that was more impossible than flying cows in Suna.

"Can demons communicate with each other even if they are sealed within different persons," Shikamaru asked into the silence.

Gaara looked up at the Chuunin confused. He wasn't sure. He'd never thought to ask Shukaku about that kind of thing. There was never the need to do so. Perhaps there was some way that demons could talk to each other from inside their vessels. Gaara thought on this for a while before having said thoughts disrupted by a loud yawn from the other side of the room. Shikamaru was patting his open mouth and squeezing his eyes closed.

"Well," the brunette started, "You figure it out. It's late and I have a class to teach tomorrow morning. Contact me or the Hokage-sama if you come up with anything. Its been lovely."

And of course by lovely, Shikamaru meant troublesome, for that's what should be in place of any adjective that leaves his mouth.

While Shikamaru made sure everything for tomorrow's class on the henge no jutsu was fully prepared, Gaara sat up thinking and trying to get Shukaku to talk to him. He was just desperate now. Incredulously, Shikamaru had actually given Gaara some hope that Naruto would survive his whole mess. That just meant that Gaara had to try even harder. He urged himself to be the one to save Naruto. He already owed him his life. He'd feel beyond guilty if Naruto went through all that trouble for him and Gaara didn't give the blonde boy anything back in return. He'd feel certainly awful about himself.

So, he would try all night just to talk to Shukaku, and wear himself thin doing so for something that he wasn't even sure was possible, but was the strongest lead yet on saving Naruto from the pain he was suffering.


	7. Precious Person

Tsunade put her thumb and index finger to the bridge of her nose and squeezed. It was hard not having a two-hundred plus IQ and trying to listen to Shikamaru explain everything that he found out through the papers, and surprisingly, Gaara. She couldn't take much more of his lengthy explanation; it was honestlygiving her a headache.

"Wait, wait," Tsunade said with her handup. "I think what you're trying to tell me is that the Kyuubi can only be healed if Naruto wakes up and somehow convinces it to heal him first or we get someone else to talk to the Kyuubi and you asked Gaara to find out if Shukaku can. Is that right?"

"Yes," Shikamaru nodded.

"Then why didn't you just say that," the Hokage boomed.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama," the young Chuunin hung his head.

"It's alright, Shikamaru. You're free to return to your class now. I'm sure they are absolutely dying to hear more about the bunshin no jutsu. How is Konohamaru doing, by the way?"

"He's horrible at it. He's also very similar to Naruto. He's such a troublesome child... but,I think he'll go far in life. He seems to want to prove himself by being Hokage, too. I may be teaching a future Hokage, Hokage-sama," Shikamaru stated, almost proudly.

"Thank you. You're dismissed," Tsunade waved him out.

The kunoichi watched as the young prodigy walked out of her office. She sighed. Konohamaru was following in Naruto's footsteps. Hopefully it was Naruto who was Hokage by the time the little brat grandson of her sensei started causing the same kind of trouble as Naruto. But, knowing Naruto, he'd probably just encourage him. Tsunade sighed heavily.

Back in the hospital, Gaara was trying to get a hold of Shukaku like his life depended on it. He called out to him. He tried to feel around for the massive chakra within him. He just couldn't find Shukaku anywhere. The sand-nin wondered if Shukaku had just left him somehow. Thankfully, his worries were quelled when he finally reached deep enough into himself and hear a faint snoring. That bastard demon was sleeping!

"_Shukaku! Wake up!"_

_The demon stirred within him. He slowly stood up even more gradually opened his eyes to glare at his vessel. Shukaku was standing a tall as he could and staring down at Gaara._

"_**What do you want, boy? I was trying to sleep, you know. It was a nice dream, too. Lots of blood.Go away before I eat you!"**_

"_Quiet. This is no time to be… what ever it is you're being. I need your help. This is serious, so don't laugh. Please. I need you to talk to the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Can you do it? Can you save him?"_

"_**And just why would I want to save that bastard? He's caused me nothing but trouble in the past! In fact, I might just let him die,"** Shukaku laughed in his strange manner of speaking._

"_He'll owe you a life debt if you save his and his vessel's lives. Wouldn't that be nice," Gaara attempted to bribe his demon._

"**_A life debt, eh?"_**

"_Yes," the redhead nodded._

"_**What do I have to do,"** inquired Shukaku warily._

"_Get in contact with Kyuubi through me and Naruto. Naruto is unconscious and the Kyuubi won't heal him unless you tell him that it's impossible for him to live without healing his host first. Similar to our situation."_

"_**I'll see what I can do, brat."**_

"_Thank you, Shukaku."_

_Shukaku stared down at his container. He was surprised that Gaara had gotten so soft. He was thanking him, and saying please, and just plain showing some respect. Had this Naruto boy changed his vessel so much? And just why did he care anyway?_

Gaara stood over Naruto's pale body and studied the calm face before him. There had to be some way for Shukaku to get inside of Naruto to talk to the Kyuubi. It was their last option. Time was ticking away fast. If this didn't succeed, then, well… Gaara just didn't want to think about what would happen if he failed to save Naruto.

Naruto was his precious person. He would die for the blonde boy. He would give his life to protect him. This is all because of a few sentences he had spoken to Gaara when he had beaten him. Gaara believed every word that Naruto had said. Love did make people stronger. Gaara didn't quite know how to love, but he knew some of it. He could channel this feeling of hope and warmth and happiness that Naruto gave him right back into the boy. He would save Naruto by loving him.

But… just what did people do to the ones who they love?

Gaara was sure he'd seen it somewhere before. He had to think back a while.

However, before he could remember what it was, the door opened and in stepped two of the blonde boy's comrades. Sasuke and Sakura. She greeted Gaara and Sasuke held up a hand towards Gaara in a half-assed wave.

"We're here to see Naruto. Then we're heading to Sasuke's surgery. I'm going to be Tsunade-sama's head supporting nurse for the surgery. We're both a little nervous," Sakura said to both Gaara and Naruto.

They looked at the mess of open letters and packages.

"Did you open these," she asked with a warning, even if Sasuke was glaring enough for her. "You read our personal letters?"

"Yes, Naruto asked me to. I read them to him since he couldn't hold them."

"He asked you to?"

"Naruto didn't want to go back to sleep at all. He was scared that he'd… die… in his sleep. So, I read those to him to keep him awake."

"Oh," Sakura nodded. "I suppose that's alright then."

Gaara relaxed. He watched as Sakura brushed the loose strands of hair from Naruto's face. Sasuke moved next to the bed and took Naruto's hand. They both just sat and stared at his face. Memories of Naruto flashed in their eyes. Gaara sat in silence and let them have their moment with Naruto. It was obvious the effect the number one loudmouthed ninja had on the two of them.

"He gives us courage when we look at him," Sakura started. "He's gone through so much and yet he is still so strong and determined. His level strength is something I know I could never hope to attain. But, somehow, just being in his presence is enough to give me the courage to perform well. I'm no longer nervous to partake in my first surgery."

Sasuke looked at her and nodded in agreement. He let go of Naruto's hand with a new look in his eyes. Gaara pondered if what Sakura said had any realistic truth to it. Did Naruto really emit such an aura or was it just the memories he had made with everyone that change people. Sasuke put a hand on Sakura's shoulder and she nodded to him.

"It's time for us to leave," she said to Gaara. "Take care."

"Good luck," Gaara replied to both of them.

After a moment of shock that that had come from the redhead's mouth, they both just nodded to him and made their way to the door. When they glanced back at Naruto, Gaara suddenly remembered his thoughts before they came. He called out to them.

"Wait! I have a question. What's the best way to show someone that you love them?"

Sakura blushed at the question (and was a little taken aback by it) but replied, "I suppose that would have to be a kiss. A kiss is something that allows you to pour all of your emotions into another person. It speaks everything you have to say to that other person, too. Without words, you can silently tell them how much you love them and cherish them. It's a very emotionally based step in a relationship, much more so than holding hands and hugging."

Gaara nodded at this answer, "One more question, Sakura-san. How does one perform this kiss?"

Sasuke turned his head and laughed silently while Sakura just giggled.

"Just put your lips to that other person's lips. It's that simple," she giggled.

"I see. Thank you," Gaara said. "Take care or Naruto would be worried."

Again, the pair in the doorway smiled at Gaara. They exited the room and shut the door behind them lightly. Half-way down the hall towards the surgery rooms, Sakura stopped Sasuke and looked up at him.

"Naruto has changed Gaara, too, hasn't he? He's just amazing."

Sasuke nodded and smiled in agreement. And they were on their way to Sasuke's neck surgery.

Back in the room, Gaara pondered what Sakura had told him about kisses. They conveyed every emotion and told the other person everything without having to use words. Would that mean that if Gaara kissed Naruto, Shukaku's message to get through to Kyuubi? But you only kissed someone that you loved, right? What defines love? Gaara should have asked Sakura that one too. Is the feeling that makes someone a precious person the same as if you love them?

At this point, Gaara was willing to try anything. Even if he didn't know what love really was, he was willing to kiss Naruto just to get the message into him so that he could get well. This just HAD to work. Gaara tried to get in contact with Shukaku again so that he could tell him of his plan.

"_Shukaku! I have a plan!"_

"_**What is it now, you unpleasant child?"**_

"_I have a plan to help Naruto and get in contact with Kyuubi no Kitsune. It involves kissing him…" Gaara started. Before he could finish, Shukaku broke into laughter._

"_**Oh yes! I'm sure the kiss of his one true love will wake him from his horrible nightmares and bring him back to life," **Shukaku roared._

"_Will it really," Gaara asked excitedly._

"_**Sure kid. Sure," **Shukaku continued laughing_

_Gaara never picked up the sarcasm and continued his plan, "When I kiss him, try and send a message through our bodies to the Kyuubi. Anything that you think will convince him to heal Naruto first. Are you ready?"_

"_**You're serious," **Shukaku muttered. **"Alright. I'll try. Don't blame me if it doesn't work."**_

"_Thank you, Shukaku."_

"_**Yeah, whatever, kid."**_

So here goes nothing. Gaara took a deep breath and concentrated on what Sakura had told him. Just put your lips against him and all the emotions will be conveyed through the kiss. It seemed simple. So why was he working himself into a panic. Why were his palms sweating? Why did his stomach feel like it was tied in a knot? Why was he shaking so much? If is was this simple, then why was he getting so nervous about one little kiss to save Naruto's life.

Gaara sucked it all in and decided to just go for it, like Naruto would in a battle. He slowly leaned over the other boy and brought his face closer to the sleeping one.

"_Get ready, Shukaku."_

Then he just did it. He put his face against Naruto's and pressed his lips to the pair below his. It was soft. And warm. And rather pleasant. Gaara smiled slightly while kissing Naruto.

He tried to focus his thoughts. He tried to tell Naruto silently with his lips that he was Gaara's one and only special person. Gaara has been trying to save him for so long now. He told Naruto about all the things that he did for him. He told Naruto about how he changed him. He told Naruto that his only concern was seeing his precious person up and walking around again. He told Naruto that the Kyuubi had to heal his vessel before the demon could be healed. He told Naruto that he was worried about him and upset that he couldn't say these things to him with his voice.

He told Naruto that he loved him.

He loved him in his mind because of how he had changed him for the better. He loved him in his soul for making him see the better side of the world. And he loved him in his heart for being someone like him that showed him that the pain could go away with this love that he felt for him.

Gaara thanked Naruto for everything through that long kiss.

Gaara pulled back from Naruto and hoped that all those messages were conveyed to Naruto. He prayed to the sand gods that Shukaku's message had gotten through more than his own messages. Gaara had faith that Naruto could pull through this, he got through everything just fine. This couldn't be any different.

Gaara took Naruto's hand into his own, as he had seen Sasuke do on a couple occasions. Naruto's hand was warm and soft. It was limp and pliable, not holding Gaara's back. In turn, this actually made Gaara slightly upset at the hand. However, the hand twitched. And again it twitched while holding his. The temperature of Naruto's skin was on the rise. Gaara was slightly scared. He reached over with his free hand and pressed the blue button that he had pressed before.

Less than a minute later, Shizune and a team of nurses burst into the room. Her thoughts focused on the fact that Tsunade was in surgery with Uchiha Sasuke so she couldn't be here. Shizune panicked when she felt Naruto's temperature. He was running a very high fever. Had Naruto finally run out of time? Was this the end of this whole mess? Shizune looked at Gaara who was still holding Naruto's hand. The hand looked as though it was cutting off Gaara's circulation to his fingers. The redhead had a smile on his face as if he was happy about what was happening.

"You're happy that he's dying aren't you," Shizune yelled. "What did you do to him!"

Gaara stood in shock, "I only kissed him."

Shizune stared at Gaara confused. Kissed? She shook the thoughts away and looked back at Naruto. A steam had begun to rise from his body. The Hokage's attendant remembered when this same thing had happened to Gaara. Is that why the other demon boy was smiling at the blonde? Did he know that this was happening? The steam stopped.

"Check his stats," Shizune ordered the nurses.

Before they began to do so, Gaara interrupted with a huge smile plastered on his face, "He's completely healed. I did it. Now, he's resting like I did after having been lacking so much chakra. He's just going to sleep for a little while more to replenish his and the Kyuubi's reserves."

Shizune nodded and softly replied, "We're just going to monitor him anyway. I'm going to go inform Tsunade-sama of what happened. She'll be interested to know. Sabaku no Gaara healed Uzumaki Naruto with a kiss. This will be all over the hospital in no time."

Shizune left the room laughing. The nurses scattered around performing different healing and monitoring jutsu on Naruto. They maneuvered around the redhead who refused to move from Naruto's side.

Gaara just stood there with a stupid grin on his face, which was beginning to hurt his face because he wasn't used to smiling so much, holding Naruto's hand and staring down at the blonde boy's lips.

"_Thank you, Shukaku."_

"_**Yeah, yeah. I'm going back to sleep now. Don't even think of bothering me for a couple of days."**_

"_Whatever you want."_

_Shukaku laughed and then all was silent inside of Gaara._

Gaara knew what love was now. He wasn't going to let it go.


	8. Control

It wasn't until three days later that Naruto opened his eyes. Three long days that Gaara didn't so much as twitch in the seat he had been sitting in while staring at the blonde he had fallen in love with. In those three days, Naruto had had many visitors pass through his room. Gaara barely even noticed their presence until they passed in front of him.

He thought back to all the people who had came to visit. Sakura and Sasuke had been here as soon as the Uchiha was allowed to move around again. His surgery had gone well and Sakura's performance was apparently perfect. He also recalled a Chuunin with hair similar to Shikamaru's and a scar across his nose visiting and causing a commotion. He had just got back from a month long mission and was going to treat Naruto to some ramen but found he had been in the hospital for so long. Another of the visitors had been some blonde girl with a bun on the back of her head and long bangs. She brought a huge arrangement of flowers that looked like it took a week to make. There may have been others, but he wasn't quite sure. Those were just the loudest.

The redhead knew that Naruto was just recovering his chakra, but he couldn't help feeling so worried and overprotective. Gaara didn't know what was happening to him. All that he did know was that he couldn't stop these changes. In fact, Gaara didn't think he wanted to stop these changes. He actually liked the new him. Was it Naruto who had changed him so much, even when he was asleep nearly all of this whole month? He really did love the other boy, didn't he?

These are the things Gaara thought about in those three days.

Then finally, Naruto opened his eyes. He blinked at the ceiling. He yawned. He stretched his stiff joints and muscles. He pushed his sheets down and sat up. There was something different. He could tell. This was different than the last few times. He hadn't suffered any nightmare while sleeping this time. Maybe that was it. And then it hit him. Where was the pain? He had been healed. How?

Gaara stood up startled from his seat and immediately hit the button. Naruto was awake. He was awake and he wasn't crying. Therefore, Naruto was awake and he was healed because he wasn't feeling any pain. Gaara felt uncharacteristically alive. He just felt alive. There was no other word for it. It wasn't excitement; he knew excitement over blood and killing. It wasn't happiness; happiness was what Shukaku felt when he was released. Gaara could only describe what he was feeling as being alive.

"Gaara," Naruto asked in a scratchy voice that hadn't been used in a while.

"Naruto, how are you feeling?"

"Sore. But… the pain is gone. What happened?"

"So it did work," Gaara said with a small curve of his lips.

"What did?"

"I healed you. Shukaku got his message through to Kyuubi, or I got mine to you. What was it?"

The blonde stared at him, "I can't remember. I think… It might have been…"

At that moment Tsunade followed by Shizune followed by almost the whole staff of nurses on duty piled into the room. In an instant they were crowded around Naruto and recording things on their clipboards. Gaara was forcefully pushed back into the wall and his spot replaced by some random medical ninja. Gaara grunted and squeezed his eyes closed from the pain. When he opened his eyes, the look of peace that Naruto had put in them was replaced with his old stony glare.

Sand began to wrap itself around the nurse's ankles. Luckily Tsunade and Shizune noticed Gaara growling and the increasing chakra force that was controlling the sand. They both leapt at the young Sand-nin instantly. Both kunoichi were painfully reminded that they had yet to fulfill their end of the bargain for Gaara allowing himself be tested on. The boy was still dangerous and his demon was still extremely unstable.

"GAARA! Stop!" Shizune cried out.

"Gaara, please!" Naruto cried in turn once he realized what was happening.

Gaara's eyes flashed with an unrecognizable emotion before becoming flat and blank. The redhead slowly turned his eyes up to meet with Naruto's own set. Another emotion glistened across Gaara's eyes before they became emotionless again. Naruto was slightly disturbed by this. He knew all that Gaara had done for him. He went through painful tests, read his letters to him, opened his presents, and sat and talked with him to calm Naruto down. This is a Gaara that he hadn't seen since before the Chuunin exams. He decided to ask Gaara about his behavior.

"Gaara-kun, what's wro-"

"When are you going to hold up your end of the deal now that Naruto is healed, Hokage-sama? We had an agreement," Gaara cut Naruto off.

"Yes we did. We've been working on your seal all this while. We haven't forgotten your end of this."

"Good. I'll be in my room at the Konoha Inn waiting," with that Gaara walked out of the room.

Naruto sat on his bed looking stunned. What just happened?

"Tsunade-baachan… What deal was he talking about?"

With a heavy sigh, the blonde Hokage cleared everyone out of the room except herself and Naruto, including Shizune. She sat in the still warm chair that Gaara had made into a nest in the past three days. She stared at Naruto, trying to tell him, and also trying to figure out what had just caused Naruto to have a change of heart so quickly.

"A while back," Tsunade began, "I made a deal with Gaara while in diplomatic discussions. He risked all the relations between Konohagakure and Sunagakure on these conditions. Gaara agreed to go through painful tests to help you. He gave me two conditions, we had to make sure we healed you and we reseal his demon inside of him so that it is stable like Kyuubi. Now that you're fine, we have to fulfill our agreement to him to protect the alliance between Sand and Leaf."

"So, he really just wanted Shukaku healed, that was it?" Naruto said mournfully. "I actually believed I had made a friend in him. Someone who actually knew my pain and could be there for me. Someone who could accept me, knowing that I had a demon in me. I thought he was my friend. First, Sasuke tries to leave… and this happens with Gaara. Why? Tsunade-baachan…"

She stood up and hugged the boy close to her. It just wasn't fair. It didn't seem right. This small boy didn't deserve these hardships at such a young age.

"Something doesn't add up with Gaara acting like this, Naruto-kun. I'm going to find out. I think he is still you're friend. I'll fix things, I promise."

Naruto was very much on the verge of tears when Sakura and Sasuke rushed in. Apparently, news travels fast through the hospital. They ran to Naruto's bed and smile excitedly. Sakura hugged Naruto and laughed merrily. Sasuke smiled slightly at his teammate, glad to see him recovered. Their smiles quickly faded when they noticed the sad look in Naruto's eyes.

"Wrong?" Sasuke struggled to get out from his nearly destroyed throat.

"Stop it! You're not allowed to speak yet," Sakura warned. "I think what he meant to ask was 'What's wrong, Naruto?'"

"Gaara… He…" Naruto squeaked out.

"Tsunade-sama, what did Gaara do to Naruto," Sakura growled.

Naruto nodded to the Hokage who gave him a questioning look then nodded back to him.

"He nearly killed one of the nurses who shoved him into a wall when the nurse tried to get at Naruto earlier then he took off. He was rather callous and cold. Not like he has been since he returned," and then she went on to explain all that had happened and what Gaara had said.

"But he's been so sweet recently," Sakura shouted. "He asked me about things like how to show a precious person that you love them. Gaara-kun wanted to help Naruto so badly. He didn't leave his side for a second unless he was forced. He was so dedicated and protective of Naruto. It doesn't make sense that he would do what you said he did."

"I know," Tsunade agreed. "I plan to find out exactly what happened."

On the other side of the hidden village, Gaara sat on a futon that was lain out on the floor for him. Two other futons were next to his, one for his brother and one for his sister. Luckily they were both not there when he arrived, according to Gaara. However, he thought himself unlucky that they arrived a half hour later and started pestering him about why he was there.

"It's my hotel room. You told me that I should sleep here since we are paying for it anyway. I don't see what the big deal is."

Temari started chattering at him again, "What about Naruto-kun? Is he awake finally? Why aren't you with him?"

Gaara glared at her with murder in his eyes.

The blonde gasped. She hadn't seen that look in her brother's eyes since the Chuunin exam. She had thought that all of those feelings were gone by now. Kankuro paused in response to the silence. He felt an eerie calm creeping up his spine. It wasn't a good sigh. Suddenly they both came to a sickening realization.

"It couldn't be… He didn't… He is alive, right," Temari choked out.

"Yes. Uzumaki lives. I saved his life by kissing him. It was a fucking fairy tale. No happily ever after, though!"

"Gaara, you're worrying us," Kankuro said slowly as he glided softly across the wood floor towards his little brother.

"It's none of your damn business," Gaara roared, leaping to his feet.

Without anyone noticing, even Gaara, sand slowly gathered around the three of their feet and built its way up their legs. The two oldest stared at Gaara in shock and terror. They believed that Naruto had changed him so much, but he was back to acting how he had before he ever met the other demon vessel. Then, they both noticed the sand that had traveled up to all three of their waists. Gaara still didn't notice, however. He was caught up in his fury.

"Gaara…" Temari began. "Your sand… It's out of control!"

"You're right! I can't control it anymore. It just reacts to my emotions. I almost killed a man who didn't mean to push me and I didn't even realize it."

"Gaara, please," Kankuro begged. "Have mercy!"

"I didn't kill him. Naruto stopped me. But… I almost killed an innocent man. After all that I had been through. You should have seen Naruto's eyes. It was like he was afraid of me. Just like you two are afraid of me now. I'm fucking afraid of myself now."

"Look at yourself," Temari screamed. "Gaara!"

"I know. I'm a monster. I have looked at myself deep within. No matter what, I'll always be a monster. I thought I could change. I thought that love could save me. But I'm not worthy to be around such a pure soul like Naruto. I won't let myself hurt him. I'm just a monster. Monsters can't love. Monsters can't… What the-?"

Gaara finally noticed that the sand had reached all three of the sibling's necks. It kept crawling up their bodies at the slow steady rate. Gaara started to panic. Never before had his sand decided to act against him. If his sand was his defense and his sand was trying to kill him and his older brother and older sister, then he was doomed. There was nothing he could do. Gaara froze.

"Please call back you sand," Kankuro pleaded, spitting sand out of his mouth.

"Gaara, we love you. You're our little brother. Please don't hurt us or yourself. You're not a monster."

"But I'm not controlling this sand. It isn't me doing this. See, I am a monster! Even the sand that is our mother is trying to kill me."

And Gaara began to cry. Temari and Kankuro were more shocked by the crying than the sand about to suffocate them. The last time they had witnessed Gaara crying was when their uncle had tried to kill him. He had stopped showing any emotion at all after that. Then a boy named Uzumaki Naruto came along and changed all of that.

However, there Gaara was crying. He was unable to control his emotions. And the sand that had protected him all his life was now about to suffocate all three of them. Temari felt her lungs burning. Kankuro was coughing. And Gaara stood so still and just kept on crying. They were all going to die.

Kankuro fought against the sand. He struggled to get free. He watched as the sand covered up the last part of him. His eyes. Suddenly, everything went black. This is how Gaara's victims felt. Usually, his little brother crushed them to death right about now; he didn't allow them to suffocate unless he was in a particularly sadistic mood and had the time to spare. This was horrifying. Kankuro jerked his limbs trying to free them so that he could breathe again. The sand was starting to fill his lungs each time he gasped because he couldn't stand the burning pain. Then something more terrible happened.

Temari on the other hand attempted to hold her breath against the terrible feelings in her lungs. She attempted to move her hands together so that she could somehow break herself free with wind. She never thought that she would actually have to endure this. Gaara normally was able to stop himself before he put her and their older brother's life in danger. She never wanted Gaara to use his sand to asphyxiate anyone again. It was terrible and torturous. This wasn't something that a young boy should know how to do and do so easily. Temari almost got her hands together. At that moment something even more horrible began.

Gaara stood so still. Tears streamed down his face and wetted the sand that was smothering him. He didn't even try and fight it anymore. He just wanted all of it to end so that the world could be rid of one more monster. No one would have to watch their back to make sure that he wasn't around. He wouldn't kill anymore innocent people. He wouldn't make anyone fear him ever again. The world would be a better place without him. That was for sure. He wasn't worthy of existence in the same world as Naruto.

Then, the sand slowly began to close in on them all tighter. It was a gradual change, but if the two of them weren't struggling against it, they wouldn't even have noticed. The only reason that Gaara actually noticed is because he welcomed the crushing action. He only wished it would come faster. Gaara never wanted anything more than the need for his own death at this very instant.

Except wanting to kiss Naruto, maybe. Where did that thought come from?

Maybe we wanted to be loved more than he wanted to die. Didn't the Hokage promise to seal his demon correctly? If she said that, couldn't Gaara control the demon better? Couldn't he fully change? These were all possible, but they didn't really want to make Gaara want to live. He found a counter to everything he thought up, except one little thing. Gaara wanted to live because he wanted to feel Naruto's soft lips on his again, only kissing him back and filling his heart with that love that he felt the first and only time he had kissed anyone.

Gaara was awakened from his thoughts by a female screaming just outside his cocoon of sand. Temari! His sister! Was she in this too? Then, what about Kankuro? Was his wish for death killing more innocent people? Stupid! He was such a stupid monster! How could he let this happen? Gaara fought against the sand that covered him.

Instantly, all the crushing sand fell away to soft earth. Three bodies slumped to the floor. Temari fell first. Both of her legs were broken. She curled into a fetal position and clutched her broken left arm with her unbroken right arm. The next to hit the floor was Kankuro. He hit face first and coughed up blood and sand for at least a minute straight. The sand had crushed his ribs and very nearly punctured a lung. The last to hit the floor was Gaara who landed on all fours and howled like a banshee because of crushed bones. It was a scream that could rip the inner ear to shreds.

Gaara looked up at his brother and sister. He saw that they were still alive also. He thanked the sand gods that he didn't kill the two people in his life that he actually trusted enough to keep around him constantly. They stared at Gaara as he switched his gaze between the two of them. They noted contentedly that he was obviously worried about both of them.

Temari weakly smiled at Gaara, "Don't worry little brother. We'll be alright."

Kankuro just nodded in response. Gaara crawled on his hands and knees to a spot between his two siblings. He sobbed the entire way across the room. Gaara twisted himself on the floor so that he was lying on his back and staring at the ceiling in the small space flanked by the two other sand-nins. With his left hand, he reached for Temari's right hand, with his other hand; he took his brother's hand into his own.

"I'm sorry."

"Gaara stop. You don't have to apologize," Kankuro stuttered between raspy breaths.

"Yes, I do," Gaara shouted, and sand began to swirl.

The three shuddered.

Gaara repeated in a calmer tone, "Yes, I do. I'm so very sorry. I'll be fixed soon. This won't happen again. I promise. I'll be alright. I'll be able to sleep at night, too. Isn't that wonderful? I can lead a normal life. And this will never, ever, never, ever happen again. I promise. I will be all better soon. I'm so sorry to have done this to both of you. I'm so sorry."

"Gaara… I love you, little brother. Everything will be okay. You can stop crying now," Temari quietly said in an uncharacteristically soothing and soft voice.

"Little bro, don't worry about anything anymore. We will ALL be just fine," Kankuro whispered. "I just need a little rest first."

"Thank you," Gaara sobbed. "Thank you both so much. From this day forward, I will protect both of you with my life as you are both my precious people. We're family. And families love each other and protect each other. So, we have to…"

Then Gaara's family was silent, and they waited for someone to find them before their injuries were irreparable. They all stared ahead of them. Kankuro at the door, Temari out the window, and Gaara at the ceiling. They only moved in a twitch from pain. Other than the raspy breathing of all three of them, there were no sounds at all for over an hour.

Until they heard light footsteps approaching the door…


	9. Lies and Truth

High heels clicked along the second floor east hallway of Konoha Inn. They grew louder and closer together with each passing second. Soon, the vibrations of said footsteps were brought to Gaara's ears. Someone had stopped outside of their room's door. Then there was knocking. The redhead winced, sensitive to the booming of fist against wood. His ears had become extra receptive to sound with Shukaku so close to the surface. The demon knew that Gaara would pass out at any second now and Shukaku would be freed yet again.

"Gaara-san," a voice called out. "It's Shizune. I have a message from the Hokage for you. May I come in?"

Gaara was unable to speak because of the pain. He hadn't the energy left to use his voice and mouth to make legible sounds. He looked helplessly to his siblings, both of whom had gone down for the count hours ago. He started to panic. If he didn't answer, then she'd leave and the three of them would be left near death even longer. Death may then indeed come.

With the strength he had left, he called to his sand. It was a dangerous move since the last few times he used his sand, it was out of control and lusting for blood. He pushed all the chakra he could gather out and into the sand. Slowly, a pile grew and moved towards the door. It began swirl and pile up under the door. A hand formed in the sand and reached upwards to the door knob. He pushed all but the very last of his chakra out so it could become hard enough to grip the handle and turn it.

And he failed.

Gaara's arm collapsed to the floor along with his sand. It fell out of form and scattered across the room into every crevice and crack and under the door. His arm hit the ground with a loud thud that throbbed in Gaara's ear, further injuring his crushed body. The redhead opened his mouth to scream from the pain but no sound came out. He panted and stared at the door, hoping for a miracle.

"Sand," Shizune questioned.

She stared at the floor. Her feet were covered with the grainy material that had spilled out from the crack under the door. She jumped to attention when she realized that this belonged to Gaara and came to a realization that she needed to find out why the sand was behaving this way. She tried the handle, but it was locked from the inside. Out of desperation, she raised her leg and gave the door one swift hard kick. Wood splinters flew everywhere. Through the shower of particles, she could see the terrible scene of three bloodied bodies lying on the ground.

The brunette immediately jumped into action. She first worked on Gaara who was unable to recover by sleeping because of his demon. Gaara weakly smiled at her and tried insisting that he heal the others first. Instead of fully healing them all, she made them more stable. She didn't have the chakra in her to get all of them back to perfect health. Instead, she raised Gaara and Temari's states from critical to stable and fully healed Kankuro. By the time she finished with that, she was panting from overexertion. She could barely make chakra come to her hands anymore.

Kankuro slowly opened his eyes. Shizune and Gaara both gave a large sigh of relief. He slowly sat up and felt around his chest. The puppeteer realized that he felt no pain at all. He looked to Gaara, and then to Shizune, then they found their place on Temari. If he and Gaara were alright and their sister wasn't, then was she..? He didn't even want to finish that thought. Kankuro turn his gaze the healer woman with evident worry in his eyes.

Gaara stood up and looked down at everyone. Shizune stood and brushed the sand off of her clothing. Kankuro followed suit and stared at Temari's body, trying to figure out if she was unconscious or… worse.

As if to answer his thoughts, Shizune whispered, "Kankuro-san, please carry Temari-san to Konoha hospital. We can fully heal her there. You're currently the strongest one of the three of us right now. Gaara-san and I will make it just fine. Hurry with her. The faster the better. Tell them that both I and your brother will be needing treatment also. Understood?"

Kankuro nodded and silently picked up his little sister. He noted how she looked so frail lying limp in his arms. Her docile features betrayed her naturally dominant and bold character. It just wasn't right. Kankuro decided that taking a shortcut out the window would be the best plan of action. He carefully landed on the pavement below and took off running towards the hospital. All that anyone could see was a blur of a person bolting past.

Gaara and Shizune carefully made their way down the stairs of the hotel. The innkeeper behind the desk gawked at the pair as they limped by and out the door. As they passed, Gaara had muttered something about paying extra for the mess later. The same people who were disturbed by Kankuro with Temari speeding by were equally uneasy about the next pair who hobbled along the street headed towards Konoha Hospital.

Temari and Gaara were greeted by a pair of medical nin who were waiting for them to arrive. Kankuro must have followed instructions precisely. Shizune smiled and laughed lightly. She knew Tsunade-sama was going to be hearing about this in approximately three minutes and nineteen seconds. That's exactly how fast the gossip and rumors travel across the entire hidden village.

On the other side of town, Naruto was sitting with his former sensei at Ichiraku Ramen. Iruka was concerned about the boy. Never had he witnessed Naruto eat only one half bow of ramen. The least he'd even seen the boy eat when he knew someone else was paying was three bowls. Naruto was staring down at his reflection in his bowl. The ramen was now cold. He could feel Iruka's eyes on him but couldn't bring himself to say anything or look up at him.

"Naruto," Iruka gently said, placing a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "What is it?"

Naruto shook his head and still said nothing.

"Naruto, please tell me what's bothering you."

"I won't cry anymore, Iruka-sensei. I want to, but I just can't. I promised myself years ago that I wouldn't cry anymore. I want to be strong and prove that I'm more than just that… thing… inside of me. So, I can't cry… no matter how much I want to."

"Naruto, even I cry every now and then. There isn't anything wrong with that. I suppose the real question is, 'why would you even _want_ to cry anyway?'"

"It's… just a people thing," Naruto whispered.

"Is someone calling you names again? Did someone hurt you?

"No, and… kinda. It's about a friend, or at least someone I thought was a friend. It hurts to find out what you really mean to someone after thinking that they actually liked you. It hurts deep inside where kunai can't touch to find out that you've just been used so someone else can get what they want."

"Uchiha Sasuke-kun?"

"No," Naruto sighed. "Sabaku no Gaara. He only agreed to help me heal if Tsunade-baachan resealed his demon for him. Iruka-sensei, it's so unfair."

"Gaara from Suna? I heard he was admitted to the hospital today along with his brother and sister," the cook interrupted.

Both Iruka and Naruto looked up with surprise at this. However, Naruto quickly concealed his concern over Gaara. This didn't go unnoticed by the other three around him. Naruto stood from his stool and thanked Iruka for the ramen. He said that he was going to head for his house to dust off everything before it accumulated even more. Iruka watched his beloved student and the boy who was like his son race down the street.

What they didn't see was Naruto turn the corner and run back the other direction as fast as he could. For the life of him, he couldn't understand why he actually cared about Gaara so much after he had used him and hurt his so deeply. Naruto blindly raced around corners narrowly avoiding people as he made his way to the hospital that he was so familiar with. He was lucky to have his ninja reflexes, or else a large amount of Konoha's civilian population would have ended up in the hospital he was so desperately rushing towards.

Circumstantially, two of those people he attempted to evade also had those ninja reflexes. As luck would have it for Naruto, one of those two dodged the same direction and distance he had. That one ninja happened to be none other than Uchiha Sasuke. Both lay on the ground as an astonished Sakura looked on the situation. Sasuke pushed Naruto off of him and stood up to brush himself off. Naruto stood up and laughed with a wide grin. He scratched his head and barely got a word of apology out before he took off running again.

"Dobe," Sasuke hoarsely muttered.

"I'll pay you back for that later, Sasuke-teme!" "Don't talk Sasuke-kun!"

Naruto skidded to a halt outside of the hospital. He caught his breath before going inside. Naruto had a façade to keep up and he couldn't go in there looking like he was actually worried about that sand-manipulating asshole. The blonde had no plan. He couldn't think up an excuse to actually want to see Gaara without giving away that he still had some feelings for the idiot. He had barely finished a thought before Tsunade came barreling towards him in a manner much like Naruto had just seconds before. Tsunade also stopped to catch her breath before entering the hospital.

"What are you doing here," She inquired of Naruto.

"Not quite sure," He lied and huffed with his face turned from her.

"I'll believe that the day that I believe Orochimaru wears pink pajamas and sleeps with a pile of cute stuffed animals."

Naruto burst out laughing at the image that had popped into his head. The Fifth Hokage followed in suit a half a second later as she was forced to think about what she just said. Nonetheless, it was also her to break the fake light mood between them.

"It's Gaara, isn't it? You heard already?"

Unable to hide the truth a second time, Naruto merely nodded.

"I think I may have figured something out. I was going to try and convince you to give that boy a second chance, but seeing that you're already here, I may not need to convince you at all. Just talk to him. Maybe you can fix things yourself," The legendary kunoichi sighed.

She had recovered well enough to enter the building with her composure fully regained, leaving her favorite genin behind. Naruto sat down outside the entrance and thought about it. He didn't like being treated like trash. No one would like that, but Naruto had to endure it so much from everyone else. He didn't want to have to worry about anyone who he thought to be his friend using him and treating him like shit. He didn't need to take any crap from people he could just as easily avoid.

He decided he could just as easily lose a friend who could possibly understand him more than anyone else could hope to comprehend. Naruto hoped Gaara was actually worth all this trouble. He swore to the forest spirits that if Gaara wasn't worth this effort and worrying and the time he was spending on all this, then Gaara would be turned into sand himself.

Naruto entered the hospital slowly. In the waiting room sat Kankuro who looked deep in thought. Gaara's older brother, Naruto reminded himself. As much as Naruto wanted to ask the older boy some questions about Gaara, he could tell that he didn't want to be disturbed. Naruto made his way to the desk. He stood there staring down at the sign in sheet contemplating running away or actually going through with it. In an instant, Naruto's resolve changed from wavering to being determined not to chicken out.

He signed his name and asked the nurse what room Sabaku no Gaara was in. She pointed to a room number on the map and told him how to get there. Before she finished, Naruto stopped her and told her that he'd been a patient here too many times to count and knew his way around better than the nurses.

He made his way through the corridors. First a left turn then a right. Next came a flight of stairs he had to climb. To put him on the second floor, his injuries couldn't have been that serious unless he was already treated before he had come in. He truly did know the place like the back of his hand. He even knew the quickest way to get to that room. As it was, he took the long way.

He knew he was stalling. He didn't try to lie to himself. That would be pointless. However, he was playing out the possible conversation the two of them could have. He didn't like any of the outcomes that he thought up.

Naruto shook it off. This just wasn't like him to contemplate things so much. He had come here to find out one thing and get one answer. That was it. Nothing could stop him from getting that answer. The fear of being hurt worse couldn't stop him. The thought of having his hopes of friendship and acceptance crushed couldn't stop him. Even when he thought about getting into another fight between demons couldn't stop Uzumaki Naruto.

The only thing that could stop him was his hand not functioning properly as he attempted to open the door to room 208.

"Uzumaki, you coward," he whispered to himself. "You pathetic little coward. Just do it."

So he did. Naruto opened the door to the hospital room. There seemed to be no one in the room at first. The bed was freshly made and nothing was there to show that the room had any occupants. Had Gaara already checked out? Was his injury that small? Perhaps he had gone to the wrong room. Luckily, Naruto spotted arms wrapped around a pair of legs in the corner hiding behind the wardrobe. The blond forced his legs to move and he entered the room further. He reached the point that he could see that the person hiding was indeed Gaara.

Slowly, Gaara looked up at Naruto. A flash of surprise and bewilderment crossed the redheads face. Just as quickly as it came, it went. There sat an emotionless Gaara and stood an overemotional Naruto, staring into each others' eyes and searching for the answers they needed. Neither of the boys spoke and all was quiet elsewhere. To them, the silence was like a slow painful death.

"I think we have to talk," Naruto broke the silence.

Gaara nodded. Naruto waited.

"A conversation requires two people talking," Naruto yelled. "And what the hell are you doing sitting in the corner anyway?"

Gaara hung his head and slowly stood up. Still, he said nothing to further the conversation. He moved past Naruto to the bed and sat near the head of it. He quickly glanced between Naruto and the bed, signaling that he wanted Naruto to sit down with him. Slowly, the blonde joined him on the horriblywhite bed. Another long silence. Naruto glared at Gaara, deciding to say what he wanted to or not. Gaara beat him to it.

"Bakemono."

"What did you just call me," Naruto screeched.

"No you. Me. I'm a monster. I can't control my sand anymore. It tried to kill that nurse who was trying to help you. I almost killed my brother and sister... and myself earlier. I'm a monster. You shouldn't be around me. I do horrible things," Gaara whispered.

There was another long silence as they thought over that.

Naruto sighed, "I wish you wouldn't have saved me and comforted me and talked to me... Because it hurts worse now than it did when I was dying. What you did to me... isn't something a medical ninjutsu can heal. It hurts deep in here and I blame you for it because you're the one who caused it. You fucking used me and my situation to get what you wanted, a new seal for Shukaku. How dare you pretend to be my friend!"

Gaara's eyes widened, "But I didn't use you at all. I didn't mean to make you hurt more. I'm sorry."

Naruto glared fire, "Don't bother lying to me. I can see through it all. You don't have to force yourself to pretend anymore. You're just a bastard who will do anything to achieve his end, aren't you?"

Gaara growled, "I never lied to you! I never pretended to be anything that I wasn't. I'm the one who went through damn near hell to save your life! Do you think I'd do that when just about everyone would be happy to have Shukaku sealed properly and there are better people than the Hokage out there to do it for me? You're the one who is lying! You can't face the fact that it was a kiss that made you wake up, isn't it?"

"A kiss...?"

"Yeah, hadn't you heard? I kissed you and you started to heal. You know what I realized in those few moments. I was in love with you, Naruto! You talk about things hurting inside. You have no idea how much it hurts inside me right now," Gaara chuckled darkly.

"Stop lying to me," Naruto whispered.

Naruto hung his head and stared at the white blanket. He twirled hisfingers and waited for Gaara to reply to him. Of course the other demon vessel was lying. Who would want to love something like him. He was loud, obnoxious, stupid, he had theseugly whisker marks on his face. No one could love him. Why would Gaara lie to him so much, and about this? Naruto didn't fully understand what was happening in this room. He was brought out of his thoughts by Gaara speaking to him.

"Why do you think I'm lying? Why would I lie to you at all? What reason do I have? You can't think of one. I can see that in your eyes. Just believe me. Look into my eyes. Tell me that I'm lying to you when I say that I love you."

"You must be lying. I don't know why..."

"Why? Why can't it be the truth?"

"No one could love me..."

"Oh sand gods," Gaara exclaimed. "I'll prove it then. Somehow, I'll make you see that I have never lied to you even once."

Naruto turned his head away, but even from that angle Gaara could see that Naruto was crying. Gaara felt helpless. When Gaara cried, there had never been anyone there to comfort him. Somehow he knew that it was the same for Naruto. If he was unused to being comforted, Gaara supposed that he could do what he and his siblings did last night. Gaara took of of Naruto's hands into his own and slowly stroked the top of it with his thumb. Naruto jerked upwards and stared at Gaara in disbelief.

"Gaara?"

"Don't cry, Naruto. It hurts to see you cry."

Quickly, the blonde dried his eyes. His signature smile was placed back on his face rather quickly. Naruto turned back to the redhead and flashed that smile at him. It was obvious from the wetness that lingered on his cheeks that he had been crying. Naruto didn't want anyone to think he was still a little crybaby.

"I promised myself long ago that I'd never cry again," Naruto softly told Gaara.

"Naruto..." Gaara sighed. "When you smile like that... It's pathetic. The only people who you are fooling with that giant fake smile are those who don't know anything about you at all. You're making everyone who loves you worry about you even more every time you smile like that. You're hurting your precious people and you don't even realized it. It's pathetic."

"What?" The smile fell away.

"Your fake smile hurts your precious people," Gaara said more slowly than normal.

The thought disturbed Naruto. Gaara was the first one to confront him on that, but he said that everyone else could tell. He made people worry? Nothing seemed to make sense to him at that moment. Why could Gaara tell it was a fake smile? Everyone who loves him was hurt by the smile... Did Gaara include himself in that catergory?

"On the other hand," Gaara broke Naruto's thoughts. "Your real smile, the one that actually reaches your eyes... That smile can fill a persons heart with overwhelming light even if they knew nothing other than darkness their entire life. Do you understand?"

"I think I do, Gaara," and Naruto smiled one of those real smiles at Gaara.

Gaara's lips turned up at the corners.

No matter how things were turning out, both knew that there was still a lot of things they needed to work out between them. Things like why Gaara had to kiss him to heal him. Gaara had to prove his love. They also had to deal with the uncontrollable sand and Shukaku's new seal. Nothing was perfect. But it was getting better.


	10. Secret

The next morning, Naruto found himself being dragged out of his warm and comfy bed by a giant pink and black mouse. Upon rubbing his eyes and becoming slightly more coherent, he changed his thoughts about the thing being a mouse. In fact, the thing's ears were really a pair of perfectly placed hair buns and that squeaky little voice was_ not_ saying 'chu chu' but rather yelling at him to get out of bed to train.

"Tenten," Naruto yawned out.

"That's Tenten-sempai to you. Get up. We're training you now that you're better. This is my first and last free week in a while. I said, get up!"

"Yeah, yeah," he yawned again.

Tenten smacked him upside his head, "One yeah will do."

Naruto rolled out of bed and onto the floor. He slowly brought himself to his feet and trudged into the bathroom. Tenten took it as her time to leave when she heard the shower turn on. She decided to make breakfast for Naruto, he'd need it today. Naruto's normal morning routine included a quick shower which was normally a life and death situation caused by him falling asleep while standing in there. He then moved on to lazily dressing himself in anything that smelled clean enough. Next he barely made his way into the kitchen without killing himself and made a breakfast that could be considered toxic waste in some areas, which usually ended up making him feel sick after eating it.

As the case would be this morning, Naruto was even more of a hazard to himself. He was not a morning person and the sun hadn't even risen yet. He had fallen asleep and slipped in the shower and managed to bruise his hip and get soap in his eyes and mouth all at once. While dressing, he fumbled with his shirt and nearly strangled himself. To top it off, he tripped over his pants while putting them on and fell with all his weight on his elbow.

In the kitchen, Tenten was nearly worried about all the noise that the younger boy was making until she remembered that it was just Naruto, the noisiest ninja in the world. The bacon was cooked and the eggs were almost ready. She set a glass of juice and a fork and knife on the table just as Naruto walked in and tripped into his chair with a thud. Tenten placed the bacon and eggs on his plate and Naruto stared at it in confusion.

"Eat up. You'll need all the energy you can get today."

"What's that?"

"Bacon, eggs, and toast," Tenten sighed.

"Mine never looked like that before. Are you sure it isn't poisoned or something? It won't kill me right?"

Tenten held back from whacking him with the frying pan, "That's how they are supposed to look, idiot! Maybe you're poisoning yourself with whatever you cook!"

Naruto jumped and began shoveling the food as fast as he could into his mouth. It was way better than anything that he had made for himself. It just looked so weird. She made the bacon and eggs separately and she didn't put them on the toast. Maybe he was doing something wrong in making it.

"Are you finished?"

Naruto nodded, mouth full.

"Good. Get those kunai I made for you and that scroll I copied for you. That jacket will impede your movement… don't wear it."

Naruto nodded again. He was afraid to say anything to Tenten that could make that scary side come back out again. When Naruto returned, Tenten was rushing him out the door and to her team's training field. They made their way across town to the field and set up some targets through the wooded area. Naruto wasn't allowed to watch where she put them. Tenten returned and showed him a small monitor.

"This will tell me how close you got to each target, how hard you threw your kunai, and at what distance," she explained. "Don't think you can fool my by stabbing them into the targets directly. Now, today, there are only three targets since you have three kunai. Are you listening to me at all?"

Naruto nodded, "Three targets for today."

"By the end of the week, there will be 18 targets. Three more will be placed each day. What you're doing today, is doing this run until you hit each target dead on with enough force to be considered a kill. Got it?"

"Sure that sounds simple," Naruto laughed.

"If you think so," Tenten smiled innocently. "Ready? Start!"

Naruto took off into the woods where he had seen Tenten enter. He searched around everywhere for the first target. He hopped through the trees, he ran along the ground, and he even trudged through mud and thick brush to find where she hid them. Finally he spotted one five inch circle inside a hole of a tree. He threw a kunai, hitting the outside of the tree, not the inside.

Three shots was all he was allowed, he wasn't going to waste it on trying to hit it again. The second target he found much quicker. It was a log hanging from a branch with the same red dot on it. He threw his second kunai. The aim was even worse; he ended up hitting the branch instead of the log. Naruto sighed and pouted.

The third target was the worst to find, it was stuck in thick brush. When Naruto thought he saw an opening to throw a kunai through, he took the chance. His kunai ended up tangled in the vines and weeds instead of getting anywhere near the target. He tried to retrieve his kunai but ended up tangled himself. That's when Tenten appeared next to him.

She had a sad look on her face when she told him, "That was horrible. You missed by miles. You took way to long. And you were way too soft on your throwing. Here take this and aim for that big tree across the clearing."

Naruto stood and brushed himself off. He took the shuriken from Tenten and hurled it at the large tree Tenten had pointed to. While Naruto thought she was still testing his accuracy, she was watching his body movements. His positioning was all wrong. If someone where to attack him at the moment he flung that shuriken, he'd be dead. His stance was terrible and he used his arm more than his wrist.

"Naruto, watch me for a moment. I'll do it slowly so you can see how I move, then faster, like it should be."

She positioned her feet sturdily into the ground and slowly uncurled her arm and gave a final flick with her wrist. The shuriken went flying directly into the center of the base of the tree and lodged itself in. Then, Tenten did it again at her normal speed. Naruto couldn't even see her movements. That shuriken went all the way through the trunk of the tree.

"Work on your stance. I already grabbed your kunai. Here. Now, do the run again. Now that you know where the targets are, it should be faster. Focus on your movements first, then worry about accuracy and speed second. It will be a three part training this week. You have one week to get it all down. I'll come get you then. If you haven't mastered all three steps by then, I call off the training and you have to give me back those kunai because you wouldn't deserve them. Got it?"

"Yes, Tenten-sempai. You're perfectly clear. I'll practice every day until I pass out."

"Good, I'll add the extra targets every morning before dawn. The sensors will be on so I'll be keeping track of it. See you later, Naruto."

After Tenten was out of sight, Naruto sat on the grass and sighed. There had never been anything he failed at after trying so hard and practicing. But… talk about pressure from that mouse girl. He knew she was just trying to help him, but it was an awful vigorous training. With a huff, he re-entered the woods and began the course all over again.

Naruto practiced until the sun set. He hadn't even realized that he missed lunch and dinner already. Naruto was out of chakra, he had used too much when climbing trees and running around. He was simply exhausted.

That's precisely when Gaara showed up looking for him.

"Where have you been? The Hokage has been calling on you all day. It's important," Gaara stated flatly. "Let's go."

"Tenten-sempai was training me. Remember the kunai?"

"Yeah."

Naruto let Gaara drag him by the hand to the Hokage's office. Gaara was silent the entire way while Naruto kept bothering him to let him stop to get food from someplace really fast. The redhead just shook his head. Naruto wouldn't stop talking until they actually arrived outside the door or Tsunade's office. Gaara then took both of Naruto's hands into his own. He pressed his lips together in a line and took a deep breath through his nose.

"Please let me apologize before hand, Naruto. I am against this completely but the Hokage insists that it's the only way," Gaara warned.

"What? What's going on?"

"I told him that I'd do very bad things to him if he so much as stared at any other part of you for a millisecond. I don't want him touching you and looking at you shirtless. I think it's very wrong to put you in this situation. I fought against it. Believe me, I did. But the Hokage-sama assured me that everything will be alright and the perverted old man won't try anything on you."

"I don't understand."

"I trust her. Do you trust me?"

Naruto nodded. Gaara took that as the sign to open the door to the Hokage's office. Gaara walked in first and informed Tsunade that he had successfully retrieved Naruto. All the while, Naruto's stomach was growling. When Naruto finally got into the room and got a good look around his eyes fell on one tall white-haired person standing next to Tsunade. Was this who Gaara was talking about? He was going to touch him in ways that made Gaara nervous?

"ERO-SENNIN!"

"Naruto-_chan_. Good to see you again."

"Are you here to train me and teach me more stuff? Is there anything better than the Rasengan?"

"No, Naruto. I came because I heard of some treaty agreement between Sand and Leaf and came to offer my assistance in fulfilling it. Now, I need you to get undressed."

Immediately, Gaara was in front of Naruto with a wall of sand blocking Jiraiya's view of the blonde. The redhead was glaring and growling at the Legendary Sannin. His eyes told that he would fight to the death to keep the pervert's hands off of Naruto.

"Gaara? Ero-sennin? Tsunade-baachan? Someone tell me what's going on here."

"This perverted old man wants to look at you half naked. He claims that it's just to look at your seal, but I don't trust him. Look at that face, it's the face of a pervert."

"Gaara-san, please," Tsunade interrupted. "Naruto, Jiraiya just wants to have a look at your seal to see how the Yondaime did it. Jiraiya wants to try and replicate it on Gaara so that Shukaku is sealed more effectively. Understand?"

Gaara muttered something about perverts.

Slowly, Naruto stepped out from behind Gaara's wall of sand. He slipped his black t-shirt over the top of his head. Jiraiya knelt down and stared at Naruto's navel and poked at it. Gaara let out a snarl that made the pervert's eyebrow twitch. Tsunade attempted to hide her laughter but failed terribly. Ignoring the sand-nin, Jiraiya asked Naruto to mold some chakra so that the seal would come out.

Jiraiya spent a lot time poking and rubbing and studying Naruto's stomach. Gaara felt the blood lust rising in his veins and held himself back with all his strength. Naruto laughed at each poke to his stomach. Tsunade had turned to her paperwork because she was just bored of watching her fellow Sannin work.

"I have an answer about this one, Tsunade, but I don't think you're going to like it," he informed the Hokage.

"Ero-sennin! Ero-sennin! What is it? What did you find?"

In a hushed voice, Jiraiya replied, "It's a bloodline seal. Only those of the bloodline of the Yondaime could have performed with without sealing Kyuubi inside himself and condemning his soul. In fact, there's a whole mess of seals that he could perform that I never even knew about and I'm the Sannin know for frogs and seals."

"Bloodline," Tsunade whispered. "He was the last of his bloodline. Are you telling me that we can't seal Shukaku at all then?"

"Well," He muttered. "There is someone still alive in his bloodline. Ah… A lot happened after you left. He met someone… it was a secret relationship. They never got married. She died in childbirth."

"You're telling me that your pupil had a child and I never knew about it! I'm the Hokage! Why didn't I see this in the records?"

"Uh…" He scratched the back of his head, "I'm the only living person who knows who his child is. There was only the three of us. He came to me for advice about the whole thing, so I had to help him."

Gaara and Naruto looked at each other. They weren't really sure what was happening. Neither of them knew what the big deal was about the Fourth Hokage having a son was. Of course, he'd have some inheritance money and a bloodline trait that he didn't know about. Other than that, they both agreed that having a son wasn't that big of a deal. Their side conversation was interrupted by Tsunade yelling.

"You moron! Go fetch the Yondaime's son so that he can perform the seal on Gaara-san! You realize that because he doesn't let Shukaku's urges push him to kill that the demon is lusting for blood and Gaara-san can barely control himself anymore."

"Well, you see… Um…Uh…"

"Stop that and go!"

"But, he's kinda… not able to do it… I don't think…"

"Jiraiya, as the Hokage, I command you to tell me who the Yondaime's son is right now! I'll go get him personally!"

"I can't… not in front of them…" Jiraiya said with a painful laugh.

"You're pushing it," Tsunade growled.

"Naruto cover your ears or something, okay?" Jiraiya pleaded.

"No, don't," Tsunade ordered. "I want you to hear who it is so you know how much of an idiot Jiraiya can is. I want you to see him squirm in pain while telling me in front of the both of you."

"Tsunade. Please. Calm down. You're irrational."

"Jiraiya!"

"It's Naruto! Dammit! The Yondaime's son is Naruto! Are you happy now? I told you. In front of him. Oh god. I'm so sorry Arashi. I'm sorry Naruto."

There was complete silence in the room. No one dared to break it. All eyes were on Jiraiya and his face that was scrunched up in pain. He was obviously hurt inside because of letting this secret out. Gaara turned his attention to Naruto. The blonde looked like he was about to faint or puke or both. Gaara walked over and put an arm around him. Naruto looked at Gaara with tears in his eyes that refused to fall. Tsunade sat with her mouth moving in fish motions, unable to get a sound out.

"The old man told me that my father died on a mission outside of Konoha honorably and that he died while my mother was giving birth. Giving birth took a lot out of her and when she heard my father died, she just quit breathing," Naruto spoke lowly.

He raised his eyes to Jiraiya again and let the tears fall finally.

"Now I come to learn… that I killed my father. I killed him. This monster that I am. I killed my own father. And you! Ero-sennin… you knew. And you taught me how to summon frogs, like him. You taught me the Rasengan, which he invented. You taught me the special techniques of my father that I killed."

"It wasn't you," Gaara shouted. "It wasn't you! It was the Kyuubi. You aren't your demon. You're the one who taught me that."

"I killed my own father," Naruto said, collapsing to the floor.

"Naruto," the Hokage started.

"Please. I just need to be alone. Don't say anymore…"

"Tell my brother where I'm going," Gaara ordered the two others in the room.

Gaara then helped Naruto to his feet. He very nearly carried him down all the stairs and onto the street. With the blonde's arm around his shoulder, Gaara made his way towards Naruto's house. Naruto seemed to be in a deep state of reflection and unable to function properly. However, Gaara did notice that Naruto stomach growled loud enough to shake windows as they passed by Ichiraku Ramen. Gaara decided to stop and get Naruto a bowl of his favorite food. He led him to a stool and ordered two bowls of miso ramen.

Naruto numbly ate him. In the back of his mind, it did make him feel a little bit better. He came to the realization that Gaara even knew his favorite food. The redhead was eating a bowl, also, Naruto noted. Even though it did help a little, and satisfy his hunger, Naruto still felt rather distant as though he was sitting in the back of his mind.

Naruto hadn't even realized that Gaara had paid and they were walking again towards his house. Naruto opened the door and welcomed the sand-nin into his home. Naruto complained that there was only one bed and was about to give it to Gaara before the other boy reminded him that he didn't sleep because of Shukaku. Naruto stood there for a while. He attempted to clear his mind of his thoughts. Somewhere inside his mind, he registered that Gaara was softly saying something to him.

"I want to go to bed," Naruto stated bluntly.

Gaara nodded and helped him to his room. He set the boy he loved into his bed and pulled the covers up over them. Gaara stroked Naruto's cheek as the blonde fought the oncoming sleep. Naruto snapped his head up at Gaara.

"I lied. I don't want to be alone. Don't leave me alone."

"I won't. I'll stay here all night. I'll be right here by your side when you wake up in the morning. Go to sleep, Naruto."

And Naruto's eyes softly fell closed. Gaara kept his promise. He sat there through the entire night watching his precious person sleep. And he was there when Naruto opened his eyes in the middle of the night. And he was there in the morning when Naruto stretched and yawn and sat up in his bed. Gaara had smiled at Naruto and asked what he'd like for breakfast. Naruto weakly smiled back. But at least it reached his eyes, were Gaara's thoughts.


	11. Conversations

The next few days were Hell for just about everyone.

Gaara tried convincing Naruto that it wasn't him who killed his father. He tried to tell him that even the Kyuubi didn't kill him. He tried to tell him that Jiraiya didn't keep it from him to hurt him. Naruto tuned him out most of the day. Gaara left to visit his sister in the hospital, she was due to be released the next day. When the redhead returned, he found Naruto in the same spot and position he had left him in two hours earlier. He then forced the other boy to get out for some fresh air and do the training Tenten had set up for him days before.

Naruto walked around like a zombie. He refused to talk to anyone outside of his house and appeared to be in extremely deep thought. Tenten had tried to tell him that he had been doing a great job lately on her training course and that she was going to up the end target number to 30, but Naruto just shrugged her off. He had seen Sakura and Sasuke heading towards the hospital. They said Sasuke was going in for his second surgery. Sakura wanted him to wish them both good luck, but Naruto just stared at nothing through the space between them, they eventually walked away, Sakura whispering. He wandered around aimlessly until he just decided he didn't want to deal with people any more. Then he headed home.

And Gaara was still there.

Gaara sat at the kitchen table with set-up of food in front of himself and a similar set-up across from him. He idly twirled his fork on his napkin, tearing it to shreds. When Naruto entered, Gaara looked up and stared at him. Naruto hung his head guiltily, he hadn't remembered Gaara saying anything about making dinner at a certain time but he probably had shut it out of his head selfishly.

"I made dinner," Gaara stated the obvious. "It's probably cold now. Want to go get barbeque?"

"I'm sorry," Naruto choked out. "I'll eat this even if it's cold."

Naruto sat down across from Gaara at the table and looked at his dishes. Gaara had made half of one gigantic fish for each of them. A pot of rice sat in the middle of the table. Stir-fried vegetables were on a smaller plate next to his main one with the fish. Naruto served himself some rice into his bowl and ate a bite of the cold sticky clump. He took a piece of the fish and popped it into his mouth with his chopsticks. Despite being cold, it was really good. It was perfectly grilled and seasoned and Naruto was sure that if it were warm then it would be more than excellent. Naruto shoveled all the vegetables into his mouth quickly. They were sweet and still warm so he didn't want to wait for them to get cold.

Gaara sat and watched as Naruto alternately took a bite of his fish and a clump of his rice. Naruto was actually eating it all cold. He couldn't believe it. Unless Naruto really hated barbeque that much, then it didn't make sense to eat this food while it was disgustingly cold. Gaara didn't even want to eat it cold. He knew that his cooking was far below either of his siblings' skill level. He watched the blonde shovel in the food and look like he was actually enjoying it.

"Aren't you going to eat," Naruto asked around a mouthful of food. "This is really good!"

"You don't have to eat it. Don't feel obligated to."

"It's really good. I'm serious."

Gaara looked down at his fish. It looked hard and dry from sitting out. The vegetables looked soggy to him. And the rice… well, he wouldn't even touch that subject. Carefully, he picked up his hashi and positioned the pair in his hand. He tore a small piece of the fish off and brought it to his mouth. Skeptically he placed it on his tongue and began chewing. He supposed Naruto was telling the truth. It wasn't horrible. It was edible.

He swallowed down a few more bites of the cold grilled fish that he spent that time and effort to cook for Naruto. His vegetables were still slightly warm so he didn't mind them as much as the fish. The rice was getting hard again and losing the sticky quality. He could barely swallow one bite of it. Gaara picked at his fish for a while, at the same time Naruto was trying to clean off the bones.

Naruto looked up at Gaara and smiled at him. Fish and rice and the sweet sauce covered Naruto's mouth and face. Gaara was taken aback by the smile because of how Naruto had been acting. The redhead didn't know how to react, so he sat there in silence and stared. He unconsciously grabbed his tattered napkin and reached across the table to wipe off the blonde boy's face.

Naruto laughed. Gaara felt like he did something he wasn't supposed to.

"I'm sorry."

"You're acting like my wife," Naruto cackled. "Don't apologize. It's kinda cute."

"Okay."

There was silence for a while. Gaara decided to be useful and clean up the dinner that he had made. He stacked the plates and brought them to the sink. He scraped the uneaten food into the trash while the sink was filling and getting soapy. He dropped dish after dish into the sink and let them descend slowly to the bottom. When all the plates and bowls were in the hot water, Gaara plunged his hands in started scrubbing the first thing his fingers found.

Naruto stood up and walked over to where Gaara stood. He grabbed a hand towel and threw it in Gaara's face. Gaara jumped back, spilling soapy water on the floor. He took the towel off of his face and stared at Naruto. The Konoha genin just smiled at the other boy again, the same smile that reached his eyes like before. Naruto unzipped his jacket and plunged his hands into the hot water and took up the sponge and bowl that Gaara had been cleaning.

"I'll do this since you cooked, but you can help me dry them off with that towel and put them away," Naruto explained. "Got it?"

Gaara nodded and took the bowl from Naruto's hand after he rinsed it off. They stood there without speaking, only the occasional running water to create some background noise in the otherwise silent house. Occasionally Naruto would look over at the Sand genin and smile at him for no reason. Finally, when there was only two dishes left in the sink and the rice pot, Naruto broke the silence.

"Tell me about what you did while I was in the hospital…"

"I sat there in your room."

"That's it? You just sat there?"

"Yeah. Well, Shizune-san did some tests on me. And I talked with some of your friends, kinda. Sasuke couldn't talk. And Sakura did enough talking for all three of us. Shikamaru was there once."

"You actually talked to them?"

"Yeah."

"How did you heal me?"

"I kissed you."

Shock. "How did that work?"

"I kissed you and tried to send my thoughts through to you. Shukaku tried to reach Kyuubi also… I'm not sure if it worked."

"How did you think of that?" Still shocked.

"Well," Gaara muttered. "I asked Sakura what the best way to tell some one you love everything without actually speaking."

"That doesn't explain why you thought it would work on me, even if it did."

"That's the simplest question yet. Because you're my most precious person… and I… I love you."

"What!"

Naruto was shocked more than he had been by anything else Gaara had said all day. He took a step back and dropped the last clean dish into Gaara's awaiting hands. His mouth flapped open like a fish. For once, he had absolutely nothing to say. He didn't know what to think of this new information. Gaara had said it so simply and uninhibited. Naruto couldn't process the thought. Gaara loved him? Did Gaara even know what love was? Naruto then decided one thing, he'd think about it all later.

"What's going on with your sand," Naruto asked, quickly changing the subject.

"From what the Hokage-sama explained to me, Shukaku is trying to merge with me. He's always trying to get out, so I don't know why he'd be trying to find a way to stay inside longer. He won't tell me anything either. She also said that each time he succeeds in merging with me, my powers grow even more. My body can't handle the power so it reacts to strong emotions to get rid of it. Like, when I got angry at the hospital or when I was sad at the hotel. Or the other day when I got scared about that… whatever that was falling on your head… my sand protected you… Understand?"

"Yeah, I do." Naruto nodded. "It was a frog statue I made with Iruka-sensei when I was little. I guess you protected that, too." Pause. "So, you need a seal like mine to control the merging then?"

"So it seems."

"And this seal is only able to be performed by someone with my bloodline?"

"That's what they say."

"And I'm the only one of my bloodline since my father…"

"Yes."

"Then I guess I better try to learn how to do it, won't I?"

"You will?"

Naruto laughed at Gaara's excitement. It seemed to Naruto that no one had ever gone out of their way to do anything to help Gaara before. It seemed like a sad existence. Naruto couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like if Iruka-sensei had never been so kind to him. He'd still be crying, or even worse, he could have turned out like Gaara had. The blonde wanted to help his friend in any way that he could. Even if it meant confronting something painful, like whom his father was.

"Do you want to go bug Ero-sennin after we finish cleaning up the kitchen? I bet he knows where I should start because he knows all about sealing jutsu."

Gaara nodded at Naruto.

After they finished cleaning said kitchen, the pair set off on a journey to find the old pervert. They started by simply asking around if anyone had seen him. Not too soon after, they found themselves standing outside of a cheap hotel that Naruto never knew existed. They glanced at each other and entered the hotel. The clerk behind the counter said that he was staying there but went out. He directed them to the bar across the street and told the two boys to watch out for the guy because he seemed a little reckless. Naruto laughed.

The bar was dark and clouded. Naruto walked in casually like he had done this before. Gaara, on the other hand, felt like he shouldn't be there at all. He was very uncomfortable in that sort of environment with all those shady people who could possibly be plotting to assassinate him. He never knew who his father would get to do the dirty work next. Needless to say, Gaara felt more than a little paranoid inside the bar.

Jiraiya was sitting in the corner. Drinking as usual. He was talking to some girls and telling them all about how he was a famous author and many people loved his books. He was going on and on about how the girls could be his inspiration for his next book. They giggled and fawned all over him. Naruto thought he was going to be sick.

"Oi! Ero-sennin!"

"Naruto! What are you doing her, you little brat," he scowled.

"Teach me how to do that seal for Gaara," Naruto shouted.

"Later. Can't you see I'm busy doing research for my next great novel? I've found the perfect inspiration here."

"There's no time for this, you pervert!"

Jiraiya jumped to his feet and the girls fell to his sides with high-pitched screeches. He put one foot on the table and pushed off. The sake jugs fell over and the liquor spilt all over the two girls' skimpy dresses. He leapt next to Naruto facing behind the boy.

"I guess you're right," Jiraiya agreed.

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Naruto muttered.

"Look at your friend, you little brat!"

Naruto spun around and searched the room for Gaara. He just realized that he wasn't with him. He squinted to see through the smoke filled room. His eyes caught sight of a bit of red hair in the corner blocked by a pack of drunks surrounding him.

When Gaara had walked in, the men only saw the scared look on his face and decided he would be good prey for their drunken fun. One dark haired man had snuck up behind Gaara to try and wrap an arm around the boy's neck to choke him. He didn't count on Gaara's sand wrapping around his arm and breaking it before he even touched him. A tall man with glasses and a shorter bald man stood up immediately and went to their friend's rescue. Their fists were caught and crushed when they attempted to punch Gaara in the face. Another man with long hair and torn clothing attempted to kick Gaara and found his leg broken.

Gaara slowly backed himself into a corner when all this was happening. He couldn't control what his sand was doing again. It was automatically protecting him. He felt so scared walking in there and now he felt his sand calling out for blood. He was terrified of what the sand was doing to these men. Gaara buried his head in his hands and shouted.

The men started surrounding him. They called him names and threw things at him to see what else the sand would crush. They chucked their mug at him and watched the glass shatter. More name calling. One man picked up a chair and hurled it at him to see what would happen. Shattered wood flew across the room, giving many of the men splinters. They were too busy yelling at that one man to notice that sand had gathered around all 7 of their pairs of feet.

Gaara let out a frightened yell as he watched his sand collect around their bodies and constrain them. The men then began to panic, and the sand seemed to dance around their bodies in glee. Gaara shut his eyes tight. He didn't want to see it. He waited for the blood to splatter all over him.

Instead of feeling the warm and sticky blood fall around him, Gaara felt a pair of arms wrap around him. They were so warm. Gaara had never felt so warm before. He began to calm down. Instead of hearing the jeering of the sloshed men, he heard a calming voice whisper in his ear. A hand started petting his hair and he fell forward into those arms. Gaara opened his eyes to find Naruto holding him tightly.

The sand had returned to the ground from where it came. The men had all run out of the bar. The only people left in the building were Naruto and himself and Jiraiya and that bartender. He sighed and melted deeper into Naruto's warm embrace.

"I'll teach you everything I know tonight, Naruto. I promise you that. I'm sure that you can figure things out from there."

Naruto nodded, "Give both of us a moment then we can begin."


	12. Traditions

Jiraiya made Gaara sit and watch and not interrupt or interfere in the training of Naruto. The legendary ninja explained to Gaara that if his sand reacted to emotion, his sand would want to protect Naruto if he was in danger of being hurt. Gaara had to attempt to control that sand. So in a sense, the sand genin was also being trained by one of Konoha's Legendary Three. Gaara was nearly pleased with the thought.

Naruto was constantly getting smacked upside the head by Jiraiya. The old pervert was continuously berating the blonde for not doing things right. He made Naruto go on with the training far past midnight even though his chakra was very nearly gone. Gaara was fighting with his sand to keep it from attacking Jiraiya and protecting Naruto.

"Idiot," Jiraiya yelled. "You just sealed of the life force tree instead of sealing the bug infestation. If you're going to be killing what you're trying to save you should just quit now. You don't have what it takes to become Hokage."

Naruto hung his head and took a deep breath. His shoulders heaved as he panted from the heavy training. Naruto was determined to get at least 5 of these down by tonight. He had to study the basic principles of seals also. Studying was never his strong point but he could do it if someone else's life depended on it. Gaara's hand twitched making the sand jump. He didn't want Naruto to have to take this abuse.

Naruto walked away from Jiraiya and unsealed the tree with ease. It was the first thing that Jiraiya had taught him. At least he had mastered that. The hermit walked over to where Gaara was sitting and sat down next to him to watch Naruto repeat the same hand seal over and over again to produce the technique he was trying to. He smirked a bit at the blonde and turned his attention to Gaara.

"Calm down. This is how he learns best. He has to have the need to prove himself. In actuality, it took me over a month to learn that unsealing technique. He's already mastered that, plus two sealing jutsu. That's more than I could do in a year. Naruto… really is his father's son."

"You should tell him that, not me," Gaara said flatly.

"I would, but I think he's still a little worked up about finding out about his just the other day."

Just then, Naruto fell over backwards. He began snoring loudly causing Gaara and Jiraiya to look at each other with silly grins. Gaara was the first to stand. He attempted to pick Naruto up to carry him home. Jiraiya nudged him out of the way and picked up the young shinobi. He smiled down at Gaara.

"I'll carry him home. Let's walk together."

Gaara nodded.

The trip back to Naruto's house was mostly silent except for Naruto's snoring. They walked through the darkened streets of Konoha in the shadows. They quickly passed through alleyways and attempted to avoid the bright streetlights that hurt their eyes that were already so used to the dark of the training field at night. The three took a detour over rooftops, probably waking a few sleeping families. And soon enough, they reached Naruto's house.

Once inside, Jiraiya unzipped and removed Naruto's jacket with Gaara's help. He laid him down onto his bed and exited the room. Gaara was slightly uneasy about leaving Naruto alone. So much that he did not even think once about being alone with someone he barely knew and was so much more powerful than him. He sat on the couch and watched the older man move about the room looking at the odds and ends. His eyes kept glancing in the direction of Naruto's bedroom.

"Why is it that you're here, Gaara-kun?"

"I'm staying by his side until I'm forced to leave."

"Because he can help you?"

Gaara glared, "Because I love him."

"Love him? Do you even know what love is, little boy? You're not even a teenager yet! How could you possibly know what love is?"

"I was told once," Gaara whispered, "by my uncle… He said that the only cure for the pain in here isn't medicine, its love. And… when I am around Naruto, that pain goes away. So, that's how I know I love him. He makes the pain in my heart stop hurting. He makes the monster in me calm down. I don't lust for blood and death. I'm not lonely anymore. I love him with everything that I am and more. Do you understand?"

Jiraiya simply nodded at him. He supposed that this boy who was nearly four generations younger than himself was more than likely wiser than him on the subject of love. He could accept the boy's answer. There were a few things that still troubled him. He had to look out for his prize student.

"Does Naruto know?"

Gaara nodded.

"What does he think?"

Gaara shrugged.

"What if he loves you?"

Gaara looked up and smiled, he opened his mouth to speak but Jiraiya was still talking.

"What happens when you return to your village? Do you think your heart will break? Will you be breaking his?"

Gaara looked down again. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Naruto has changed me. Everyone can see that. When he learns the seal properly, I won't have to worry about Shukaku. I'll be better forever. All thanks to him. Even if we were separated, I'd still love him as much as I do now. I wouldn't do anything to hurt him."

Jiraiya also accepted his from the Suna genin. He nodded at Gaara and the boy looked relieved to see the approval. The Sannin was slightly surprised by Gaara's reaction. It made him think even more about how serious this boy really was about Naruto. Jiraiya had always known there was something special about Naruto, but to save a boy like this that was so far gone, Naruto was just amazing. Jiraiya said his goodbyes to the sand boy and reminded him to get out of the house more and visit his brother and sister.

Gaara sat there in the silence of the house for a good many hours. He thought about what the old man had said to him a lot. He worried about what would happen after he got his seal and was forced to return to Sunagakure. How would he and Naruto be affected by the change after getting so used to being around each other for nearly two months now? He really didn't like the outcomes he was imagining in his head.

Only two months? It had seemed like a lifetime already to Gaara. He was beginning to think that he didn't want to leave. Was it possible to get permission to become a Konoha shinobi? Would his village allow it? They were still lacking a Kazekage and needed all the protection they could get. Would Konohagakure allow it? He wasn't so sure that the people would want another demon running around their village. Gaara sighed and sunk into the couch more. He didn't know what was going to happen. It worried him more than anything.

He stood up and decided not to think about anything like that anymore. Naruto had shown him that he should look on the bright side of life. He was here with the one he loved now and that was all that should count. Who knows what will happen in the future, Naruto would say, let's just enjoy the present.

Gaara walked around the room and studied the objects, smiling. The frog statue painted in all colors that he had saved from certain doom was made by Naruto and Iruka-san when he was much younger. A precious item. There were other odd bits here and there. One was a stick figure drawing of Naruto drowning in the Hokage robes and hat, signed by none other than Naruto himself in a frame sitting on top of a side table. Perhaps the cutest thing Gaara had found in the room was a ragged and beat up stuffed blue rabbit with one eye hanging out and stuffing falling out all over the place.

Gaara had found that rabbit the other night while he was cleaning Naruto's pig sty of a house. He refused to reside in the filthy house and Naruto refused to clean so he had to do it himself. Underneath the chair in the living room was that sad stuffed animal. Naruto nearly cried when Gaara presented the dusty thing to him. He explained that it was his first birthday gift from the Sandaime Hokage when he was 1 year old. He had lost it about five years ago and had supposedly looked everywhere for it. Naruto had hugged Gaara so hard that he could barely breathe.

Gaara said that the thing was disgusting and dirty. Naruto insisted in throwing it in the washing machine. It caused the gray rabbit to turn blue. However, the legs and arms of the poor thing were loosened and the stuffing started to come out. Surprising the already dangling eye was still attached. Gaara picked the rabbit up off the top of the TV and held it in both of his hands to stare at it. Something like this rabbit proved what a good person Naruto was. Gaara couldn't quite explain it, but looking at that well-loved bunny made him think that.

Gaara wanted to be someone like Naruto. He wanted to be able to truly care about other people like Naruto did. Gaara wasn't sure exactly how concerned he was for his brother and sister, but he knew he loved them, too. He didn't know if he could ever feel the need to protect his whole village like Naruto. He also knew that he loved Naruto, but it was a different kind of love. It was a love that made his heart jump whenever the blonde entered the room. Like it had just now.

Naruto rubbed his sleepy eyes while drug his body into the living room with loud heavy steps to find Gaara. With one eye squinted open, he spotted Gaara standing there with his beautiful rabbit in his hands. He chuckled slightly at the scene. He proceeded to walk forward and hit the couch with an "oof." He then flopped over the back of the couch and onto the cushions. He managed to land on his back with his arms behind his head and smiling up at Gaara. The redhead was rather amused by the scene. He couldn't help but find Naruto simply adorable.

"G'mornin'," Naruto mumbled, barely moving his lips.

"Good morning. You're up before dawn."

"Tenten-sempai's trainin'. I'nly hava c'ple more days lefta it y'know. Gotta get it done and all that," he mumbled more.

"Let's get a good breakfast in you then," Gaara demanded. "I'm going to go out and get some things. The sun is rising so some shops will be open now. Sleep and I'll wake you when everything is ready."

Naruto obeyed and closed his eyes and descended into a peaceful slumber.

Gaara went to the market to find what he was looking for. Luckily for him, he found almost everything that he needed right off the bat. The first shop to open was the spice shop. Gaara pointed out what and how much he wanted of each of the spices. The old lady weighed them each on the scale and told him the total. Gaara smiled as she placed the small sacks of marjoram, oregano, thyme, white sesame seeds, and sumac into a paper bag for him. He also asked for a bottle of olive oil. He handed her the exact change and was on his way to see if he could find the last thing. Lady luck was certainly on his side. The bakery had just set out what they had been cooking since the early morning. Gaara snatched up some pita bread. On his way back, Gaara snatched up some eggs and made his way back to Naruto's home.

He noticed Naruto was still asleep after all this time and didn't really mind. He was going to make something special for him this morning. Naruto probably had never tried anything like it before. In the desert, it was a common breakfast and was thought to make the person more mentally alert and physically stronger. It was just what Naruto needed to eat before his training. Tenten was going to push him harder, and they both knew it.

In the kitchen, Gaara worked at mixing the spices and oil together into a paste. He'd only seen Temari make it so it was rather touch and go. He kept tasting it and adding more of this and that until he thought it was perfect. He only wished he had written down measurements so he could make it again if requested. When that was done, he boiled four of the dozen eggs he had bought in a pot and waited for them to be done. He toasted the pita bread and began setting out plates. A timer went off signaling that the eggs were done boiling and the pita was finished toasting.

He set everything out and went to get Naruto. The blonde was curled up in a little ball on the couch and hugging that poor rabbit. Gaara kneeled down and stroked Naruto on the nose to gently wake him up. He whispered his name silently. Naruto made a few noises and finally opened up one eye to look into Gaara's eyes. Naruto opened the other eye and blinked a few times.

"Food is ready," Gaara whispered.

They made their way to the kitchen and found their seats at the table. Naruto looked down at the flat round bread and odd colored paste spread on it. He also noticed two eggs with their shells still on. Gaara laughed at the expression on Naruto's face. He decided to save the other boy the trouble of figuring out what to do with this food.

"It's a custom breakfast in Sunagakure. Pita with za'atar and boiled eggs. It will make you more powerful and more vigilant. Try it. I swear it won't kill you," Gaara assured him. "You eat it like this."

Gaara proceeded to show Naruto how to peel the shell off of the egg in two whole chunks. He bit into the eggs and showed him that you just ate it with hands and no utensils. He then proceeded to break off a piece of the toasted pita and pop that into his mouth. Naruto followed in suit and found that he really did like what Gaara had made for him. The spices on the bread were amazing and he never knew you could boil an egg like that before. Naruto and Gaara ate their breakfast in silence, intermittently looking up to smile at each other.

"Jiraiya wants to see you after Tenten-san's training. He said he'll meet you at the ramen shop," Gaara informed Naruto after breakfast.

Naruto looked up from washing and nodded, "More seal training, I'm sure."

"You're really good at learning things so fast. I wish I could do something with my sand other than kill people with it," Gaara whispered.

"Try something new. Invent something of your own," Naruto exclaimed, startling the boy less than a foot away from him.

When Naruto was ready to leave to meet with Tenten, Gaara also got himself ready to leave. He told Naruto that he was going to meet with his brother and sister at their hotel room. He hadn't spent much time around them while they were there and it was rather unfair that they had to sit around and wait for him to show up so that they could actually do something. Naruto agreed that it was a good idea since he didn't know when he would actually be getting home from Jiraiya's training.

Naruto set out for his accuracy training. He did strangely feel more energetic than normal. While it could possibly be from the breakfast that Gaara had made, Naruto attributed it to Gaara himself. He liked having Gaara around. A thought struck Naruto. Perhaps he had better think about what exactly the other boy was to him before it was too late and Gaara had already left. Naruto didn't want to regret anything in his life. However, now was the time for training and he couldn't think of anything other than those targets or he'd fail.

After his first lap through, he spotted Tenten waiting for him just outside the tree line. He jumped down from the branch to meet her. He smiled at him and began speaking to him in her mouse-like voice. Tenten informed him that his run-through had been too perfect according to her monitors. That's why she rushed out to see him. She had decided to place traps in the forest along with five more hidden targets.

The second run had gone less smoothly. He had to dodge flying kunai that had been triggered after he hit one target. He almost met his fate when a log came swinging at him and he nearly jumped straight into a spike pit while trying to avoid the log. Needless to say, he came out with a few scrapes and scratches but nothing to write home about. Though, he did think that he might have sprained his wrist while landing on if from the fall caused by an explosive note placed underneath the perfect spot to hit one of the targets from.

What really surprised both of them was the fact that his hits were still dead on all the targets. Tenten was very proud of how far he had come. He knew that he was distracted most of the time by something else. Naruto hadn't let what was troubling his mind interrupt his training, but she wouldn't have blamed him if he had. She had heard a few rumors but wasn't going to bring them up anytime soon. Naruto on the other hand was a bit more than shocked at the results. Perhaps the extra training he did with the targets to help clear his mind of the tormenting thoughts racing through his head actually paid off in the end. Everyone knew that Naruto wasn't one to give up, but no one really knew how much he could learn and improve in such a short time, not even himself.

Tenten informed him that tomorrow could be even more dangerous than today and then they went their separate ways.

He reached Ichiraku Ramen just as Jiraiya was sitting down onto the stool. Teuchi and Ayame greeted them both and took their orders. Naruto gulped down a whole bowl of pork ramen before Jiraiya even began starting on his. They idly chattered about breakfast and kunai training. Teuchi set another bowl of salt ramen in front of Naruto. Naruto looked up, he hadn't ordered any more. Teuchi waved it off and smiled. Ayame giggled. They were off for more fuuinjutsu training as soon as Naruto finished that last bowl.

Gaara was on the other side of town visiting with his family. They had decided to go out for barbeque. They had talked about random things such as Kankuro talking in his sleep and Temari having strange dreams, and what a great dinner they had at a fancy restaurant the other night, and what Gaara made Naruto for breakfast. To Gaara, everything seemed so right and perfect between them. Finally, they reached the topic of Gaara controlling his sand and everything became silent at the table. His brother and sister stopped eating.

"I'm controlling it so much better now. Jiraiya-sama has helped me a lot. Naruto suggested that I make up my own jutsu when I told him I wanted to use my sand for things other than brutal killings. I think I'm going to work on that. He's also training with fuuinjutsu to properly seal Shukaku so that I'm not losing control at all anymore. It's great isn't it?"

Gaara waited for an answer.

All he got was two brightly smiling faces shining at him. Gaara smiled back.

"You've changed so much, little brother," Temari grinned.

Gaara continued smiling and finished eating. They finally left the barbeque place. To stay together longer, the three of them agreed to go get ice cream together. Kankuro managed to drip some onto Gaara's head, on "accident" he claims. Temari had got some strange flavor that she kept trying to get Kankuro and Gaara to try but it looked funny and smelled even weirder. Gaara had got plain vanilla and was happy with that. Eventually night fell and they decided that it was time to go and parted ways. He returned to Naruto's house while his sister and brother made their way back to their hotel to go to bed.

When he got back, Naruto was sitting on the couch with his eyes closed. Gaara had thought him to be asleep. He stepped around the house silently, taking off his shoes putting them against the wall quietly. He went to the bathroom and closed the door slowly. He wished there was some quiet way to flush a toilet. Thankfully, he didn't have to turn the faucet on full blast to wash his hands. When he left, he started to make his way to Naruto's room to grab a blanket for the other boy. That's when Naruto called Gaara over to him, scaring Gaara half out of his mind. He calmed himself and sat down next to the blonde. With a heavy sigh, Naruto rested his head on Gaara's shoulder. He was startled by Naruto's action but said nothing.

"I can perform the seals. There are three of them, all dangerous. Give me until tomorrow, I need to be fully rested when I do it so I can do it without risk to either of us," Naruto painfully whispered.

"That's great!" Pause. "But you don't seem too happy about it," Gaara responded.

"As soon as you're sealed, your mission here is over. Everything is taken care of with both of us. There's no reason for you to stay... But, I don't want you to leave before I figure out everything," Naruto stated below a sigh.

"What is this everything that you have to figure out? Maybe I can help."

"I want to know what you really mean to me…"

Gaara hung his head, "I guess I can't help you with that. And that's not enough of a reason for the Hokage-sama not to kick me out and send me and my family back home."

Gaara placed his head on top of Naruto's. There was a long silence as they thought about everything that could possibly happen tomorrow. Gaara was about to suggest that Naruto go to bed so that he could rest. However, soft snoring cut him off before he could even get a syllable out. He supposed that he didn't mind sitting like this with Naruto sleeping on his shoulder all night. In fact, he would very much enjoy it. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about what tomorrow would bring for both of them.


	13. Guilt and Selfishness

Naruto couldn't help the sinking feeling in his gut with any remedy. He thought maybe he was hungry. So, he stopped to get some ramen. It worked for a moment, but then he had to throw up a block away from Ichiraku. Naruto considered the fact that he was just nervous about the whole day. Then, he realized he was actually rather calm and confident. It wasn't until he arrived at the training field that he truly understood what he was feeling. It was guilt at its purest.

Guilt like this would usually kill him. This time, it was strange. He walked into the forest pretending he didn't understand why he was feeling so guilty. Naruto attempted to think of something other than that festering guilt. He tried to put his mind into his task but also found himself thinking chaotically and in sentences that didn't fit together with the ones around it. He tried to focus his erratic mind onto one subject, but failed miserably.

_Found the next one. Fling the kunai. I like ramen a lot. I wonder what Tenten will have to say about today's training. The clouds are nice today. Target. Kunai. Miso, Pork, or Salt, which one is better? I wish I could learn more powerful ninjutsu. Target. Kunai. I wonder what Tsunade-baachan is doing in her office right now. Dodge the flying spikes. I haven't pulled a prank recently. Target. Kunai. I didn't even see that one, how did I know it was there? That cloud looks like a butterfly. I wonder what Sakura and Sasuke are up to. Was that a bunny? Target. Kunai. I didn't see that one either, but I smelt Tenten on it… Strange. I haven't talked to Kakashi in a while, I wonder if he's still on that S-rank mission. Miso ramen is definitely the best. Two targets. Double throw. Triple trap. Dodge. Duck. Block. No, Pork is tastier. I hate paperwork, but its part of the Hokage's job. That cloud looks like the rabbit I just saw. I wonder if Sakura is going to grow her hair long again. Six targets all around, must be a dangerous trap. Throw all at once. Dodge like crazy. **Blood.**_

Naruto gripped his arm and winced as blood trickled through his fingertips. In his other hand was a large bloody shuriken. He fell to his knees and bit his lip to keep from hollering in pain. Blood trickled from the broken bottom lip that his sharp canine had found its way into. He flung the shuriken and lodged it into a tree all while cursing the single weapon. In other words, the only part of the trap that he had failed to evade.

When Tenten had come to congratulate him on his completion of her course, he ignored her and fell against a tree. She attempted to show him his final stats which were far better than his original scores. Each one of the last set of targets was a dead ringer on accuracy. He sat there panting and trying to clear his mind of every thought. Naruto didn't know how he should respond to her. To the end of the training. To everything. Naruto had never felt more confused or guilty about anything in his entire short life. He just didn't know what he would do next.

He wanted to avoid the decision he would have to make sooner or later about…

Eventually, after Tenten bandaged his arm up without him saying a word and taking care not to make it too tight, she had just left him sitting there in his silence.

He ignored the slowly setting sun. He attempted to forget his promise with all his might. He couldn't bring himself to remove the disappointment he would see on his friend's face when Gaara found out that Naruto had let him down and acted so uncharacteristically selfishly. Naruto tried to defend that with how Gaara was acting out of character also, but it just didn't work the same. The blonde attempted to think of what Gaara actually meant to him and why it hurt so much to think that he was betraying his friend's trust. However, that only led to Naruto curling up in on himself against the tree.

At some point, he had fallen on his side and started crying. He hadn't cried in so very, very long. And certainly not over something as trivial as deciding whether or not it was best to go back home at all tonight. Naruto had begun counting grass blades to see if they were more than he could count. They reminded him of so many things. His train of thought led to blades, to swords, to cutting, to pain, to hurting, to Gaara. By the time he had reached thoughts of Gaara, he had lost count somewhere in the thousands.

It wasn't until dusk that Sasuke had found him lying there pathetically. The Uchiha lifted his blonde friend out of the fetal position and up to his feet. Sasuke lifted Naruto's chin so that their eyes met. When that occurred, Sasuke began speaking roughly.

"Everyone looking for you. Worried. Why here?"

"I'm trying to escape," Naruto whispered.

"What," Sasuke questioned, his throat still raw from recent surgery.

"My mind. My guilt. My obligation. I don't want to think about things. Yet, they're all haunting me. Maybe you can understand, maybe you can't. I'm just so confused about everything. Isn't it me who usually does things without thinking? Why can't I be that me now? Why do I have to question these things so much?"

"Gaara," a whispered question.

"Yes! Gaara! I can seal his demon. Didn't you hear? All this mess with my father being the Yondaime Hokage and our special bloodline. I have finally learned how to do it... and it could very well save his life and the lives of those around him. But I can't do it."

"Why?"

"I just can't," Naruto cried out.

"Admit," Sasuke growled. "Avoiding. You know."

"He'll leave, Sasuke. I'll fix his seal and he'll just leave. He and his brother and his sister will return to Sunagakure and I won't see him again. I made a friend in him. I can't let friends go so easily. You should know that better than anyone… Sasuke…" Naruto whimpered.

"Something more between?"

Naruto hung his head, "He says he loves me. Really loves me. And right now I'm hurting him by being so selfish. I'm not a good person am I? I purposefully came here to waste my chakra training so that I didn't have to perform the seal. I have no way to get out of it tomorrow and I'm scared to death."

"Don't want him leave? Love him?"

Naruto faltered. He was completely caught off guard. He had promised Gaara that he would think about the whole thing, but he was avoiding that also. Naruto felt like he was losing himself somewhere in a different universe. He didn't know what to do. He started panicking. Did he love Gaara? Did he like him as anything more than a friend?

Scenes passed before his eyes.

Gaara reading letters to him while he was still unable to move. He saw Gaara carefully opening the wrapping on presents and lifting them to show them to Naruto. He recalled the blood everywhere. Gaara had been so hurt, yet he still did all that for Naruto. He went through all that pain just for him.

Naruto remembered his hesitation outside of the hospital when he found out that Gaara was hospitalized after he had lost control. He remembered his entire conversation with Tsunade outside the doors. Most importantly he remembered how he had ditched Iruka-sensei and ran at his top speed to make it to the hospital. Of course, how could Naruto forget the entire conversation the two had had in Gaara's room. That had truly been the key turning point in Naruto's mind on how he felt about the sand genin.

Gaara cooking dinner for him was another precious moment. The awkwardness of coming in with Gaara at the table and cold dinner served out to them. Naruto remembered every bite he took. He slightly remembered the taste, but he mostly remembered the hurt look in Gaara's eyes when Naruto walked in the door so late. He remembered each time their eyes met from across the table and Naruto would smile around a mouth full of cold food.

Then there was washing dishes with him. Gaara had already done so much, yet he still wanted to help with things. Naruto gave him the easiest task because he knew that the redhead would push until he got his way. Gaara didn't like being told no about anything. He remembered the comfortable silence and the admissions of love.

Gaara was there when Naruto needed him most. He was there when he had found out about his father. He was there when Naruto needed comforting. He was even there in the morning like he had promised to stay by Naruto's side all night. Gaara was always there for him. He was beginning to see that he truly didn't want to lose that.

Naruto thought about hugging him to keep his sand from hurting people in that bar. In the same night, Gaara had to struggle to not let his sand protect Naruto from Jiraiya and hurt the Legendary Sannin. He knew that Gaara had tried so hard to stop himself from giving into the bloodlust.

Sleeping on the couch with him was one of the greatest parts of all. He remembered the comfort he felt went near Gaara. He recalled the serenity and peace he felt when falling asleep next to him. Naruto thought about how much more he smiled those real smiles Gaara liked whenever the redhead was around. A slow smile grew over the blonde's whiskered face.

"You do," Sasuke assured in his broken voice. "Go to him."

Naruto looked down at the ground in front of him and hesitated. He had already ruined the chances of sealing for today. However, he could at least spend the remained with Gaara because he was going to be leaving soon. He wanted to spend as much time as possible, even if it was selfish. Naruto felt a hand touch his shoulder. When he looked up, Sasuke was glaring at him and pointing in the direction of Naruto's house. Naruto nodded and was gone in a second.

He jumped from roof to roof in the darkness, even across streets to get back to his house as soon as possible. People pointed at him as he crossed their paths making snide comments about demons and evil brats, but Naruto didn't have the time to even let such things cross his mind. He ran along the sides of buildings when necessary. Anything to get him home quicker was on the top of Naruto's mind. Eventually, his home came into view and Naruto focused the chakra into his feet and sprinted and pounded the street as hard as he could.

Everything else was a blur to Naruto. He faintly recalled slamming open the door and apologizing to people who had jumped. He may or may not have taken off his shoes before entering his household. However, he distinctly remembered his eyes finding Gaara's and tackling the other boy to the floor. He also recalls pressing his lips hard to Gaara's set. There might have been a collective gasp from everyone that was in the room. Naruto did remember later every word he spoke to Gaara in between kisses.

"I'm so sorry. I used my chakra on purpose today so I didn't have to perform the seal. I'm so selfish. I just want to beat myself up. But… it was because I didn't want you to leave yet. I'm selfish and I'm so very, very sorry. I just didn't want to have to say goodbye. I love you. I love you. I love you. Iloveyou. IloveyouIloveyou."

At some point, Naruto's words had begun to run together, making it nearly impossible for Gaara to tell the difference between "I" and "you" and he somehow found that ironic and romantic. The blending of "I" and "you" became one of Gaara's favorite thoughts about himself and Naruto. It hadn't shocked Gaara so much that Naruto had tackled him. To be honest, it was very hard to shock him at all simply because he was always prepared for everything.

The poor souls witnessing Naruto on top of Gaara mumbling and crying while attempting to pour his soul out were shocked. Those people just happened to be Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi and Sakura. Sasuke had made his way in a bit after the crying had started. He wasn't at all surprised, much to everyone else's astonishment.

When Gaara sat up and pulled Naruto, who was still straddling his legs, into a tight embrace, that's when everyone took it as their cue to leave. They managed to hear Gaara whispering reassuring words into Naruto's ear as they were exiting through the door.

"It's okay. Please stop crying. I don't want to see you cry, Naruto," Gaara softly said to Naruto.

Naruto hiccup and brought his head back off of Gaara's shoulder to look into the green eyes that he had somewhere down the line fell in love with. Softly, he brought his lips to Gaara's. Halfway through the kiss, he had hiccupped again and started laughing at himself. Gaara cracked a soft smile as well while petting him down the arm.

That is when Gaara noticed Naruto's wound. Immediately Gaara forced Naruto to remove his shirt so that he could get at the injury better. It had been poorly cleaned out due to lack of field supplies equipped to both Naruto and Tenten. Naruto found himself on his feet and being led to the bathroom by Gaara. There, Gaara properly cleaned the wound, extracting any dirt that had got into it and thoroughly washing the cut out. The redhead re-bandaged it and tied it off.

Neither of them could quite remember whose idea it was at first, but the both of them ended up lying cuddling in Naruto's bed. It was there that Naruto spilled the full secrets of why he went to train that morning and why he had so desperately tried not to come home. He talked about the things that his best friend (and rival) had made him realize that night in the forest. Naruto spilled out everything he could possibly imaging Gaara would care about that led him to the conclusion that he absolutely, positively, totally, completely, utterly, unconditionally, loved Gaara.

Gaara watched as Naruto fell asleep while talking. He thought about a lot of the things Naruto had said. It was true. As soon as Gaara was resealed, he and his siblings would be going home to Suna. There was nothing he could do to stop it. However, that wouldn't hinder him a bit. He would just have to write to Naruto all the time and accept any and every mission that involved Konoha, even if it was just a passing through. There would always be a way around the distance to keep their love strong. Gaara was confident in that. He smiled and thought about all the things he may one day write to Naruto as he watched the said boy sleep.

When the sun began to rise again, it found itself caught in Naruto awakened eyes and reflecting out of said pair of blue orbs and into Gaara's green set. Gaara had an awkward thought of someday being the one to wake up in Naruto's arms instead.

The morning was slow. There were showers and breakfast and the reading of the newspaper that was a few days old. No one spoke. It was a gloomy morning as it was without them reminding each other that today was the day that Naruto remade Gaara's seal into one like his own. When the pair had finished eating, Naruto made to grab the dishes and bring them to the sink. When reaching down to grab Gaara's he planted a surprise kiss onto Gaara's unsuspecting lips causing Gaara to smile more beautifully than anything Naruto had ever seen. Naruto made it a point to tell Gaara that fact.

It was slow washing the dishes. They had fallen into some sort of instinctive domestic relationship. It was crazy to think that they both had demon sleeping inside of them. In fact, at that moment they didn't want to think about demons or anything remotely related to seals and Gaara's inevitable departure. They enjoyed the peace of each other's presence and the calmness that they rarely had at any point in their lifetimes, especially as ninja. Occasionally, they would glance over at the other for no other reason than to smile and see the other one smile back.

The minutes up to the arrival of Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi seemed to go by in milliseconds. They could begin to feel the dread creep up on them and their hearts begin to race. Beads of sweat began to form under Naruto's hitai-ate. Gaara had to steady his own breathing so that he wouldn't hyperventilate. Then came the knock on the door and without Naruto even opening it, in walked the three who were to supervise the sealing.

Naruto stood and gulped. He didn't dare say a single word because if he did, he wouldn't be able to go through with it. Gaara stood and removed his shirt, without anyone telling him that he needed to. Both were on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Luckily for them, the adults in the room took the situation into consideration and knew that it would be best to remain silent, which was considerably hard for Ero-sennin who was known to mumble obscene things to himself when trying to silently do his "research."

Naruto closed his eyes and began doing the hand seals that he needed to. They were long and complicated and he needed to concentrate. The first set was to put Gaara's demon into hibernation. Naruto opened his eyes after an "inu" "hebi" "nezumi" combination. With the balls of chakra he collected on his fingertips, he quickly stabbed them all around Gaara's body making sure that Shukaku was completely hit.

He slowly backed away from Gaara who had nearly fainted but remained standing out of his own free will. Naruto began making hand seals again and concentrating on the very unforgiving preciseness he had to accomplish. On more than one occasion through the 100 hand seal set, he had to calm his breathing down. He felt the chakra pulling on him with each new zodiac animal sign he made with his hands. With one final "tora," Shukaku was unsealed from inside of Gaara. Gaara screamed in pain and Naruto shut his eyes tight and tried to block the burning sensation out along with his love's pain.

Quickly, Naruto had to enact the final fuuinjutsu entrusted to him through his blood. The knowledge of it came whispering into his ears. If Naruto had known who the voice belonged to he would have know that it was the Yondaime Hokage whispering into his ears the secret hand seals of the technique. It was a long and fast task with over 100 different seals to complete, including double one-handed seals and things Naruto had never even seen before but somehow formed perfectly. With the last seal of "tori" Naruto found his hand pushing on Gaara's stomach.

The pain of the chakra concentrating in one spot was nearly unbearable. Naruto needed to concentrate on not letting any of his demonic chakra seep through of the whole thing could be ruined and it wouldn't only be the two of them dead. In fact, if anything went wrong at this point, it was very possible that both the Kyuubi and Shukaku could escape their seals and back into the world. In the back of Naruto's mind, he heard Kyuubi howling.

Perhaps that was Gaara screaming from the pain… or even Shukaku.

He felt himself falling and heard another thump before he landed, presumably Gaara falling also.

A strange thought then passed through Naruto's mind.

His father had died simply from using this same fuuinjutsu.

That's when Naruto thought it was okay to begin panicking….

Because everything suddenly went dark in his mind.


	14. Memories

Naruto blinked his eyes open. It was that disgusting white again. Wasn't this where everything had started? Wasn't this where Gaara saved his life? Was this the hospital? Or was this Heaven? Naruto blinked a few more times. His initial suspicions were confirmed. What seemed to be the entire staff of nurses at the hospital was standing over him monitoring every single twitch of his finger. And then… all at once… they squeal and squeaked and called for Tsunade-sama because the patient was awake.

Naruto sat up as soon as the nurses began piling out of the room and the Hokage walked in. He rubbed the back of his head and smiled at her stupidly. She just put a hand on her hip and a hand to her lips to hide her smile.

"I take it that everything worked all right," Naruto asked.

In her best stern tone that still couldn't hide her laughter, she responded, "Gaara is in the next room over. He says Shukaku is fine and he is fine and there is no need for concern. It seems all he wants to do is get out of that bed and come see you. I suppose now that you're up, I'll let him get out of his bed, too."

She turned around and started walking out the door. Naruto stopped her with another question.

"How long have I been out?"

"It's only been a few hours, surprisingly. With how much chakra you used up on the last fuuinjutsu alone, any normal person would be dead." She casually left out mentioning Naruto's father and continued out the door to fetch Gaara.

Naruto sat in his bed testing out how sore his limbs were. He noticed that his right arm was much stiffer than his left arm, which could be chalked up to his focusing the seal into that hand. He stretched out his legs and was happy to see that they were acting okay. Naruto rotated his shoulders to find that they were also okay. His right hand was wrapped in a bandage. Naruto wouldn't have been surprised to learn that he had chakra burns all over. He was happy it was only his hand.

With a burst of wind, the white linen was across the room and Naruto was standing on his bed doing jumping jacks to get rid of his restlessness. He absolutely detested hospitals. The doctors and nurses always thought he needed to be kept much longer than reasonable for him. Couldn't they see from his past medical records how fast he healed?

Soon, Naruto was down on the floor doing sit-ups. He had to keep moving or else the white would overcome him.

His door burst open and he had barely a second to move before he heard Gaara calling out his name. He watched as Gaara ran to the open window thinking that Naruto had already escaped the hospital. He called Naruto's name out the window. Naruto began laughing hysterically.

"Idiot! I wouldn't leave if I knew you were going to be here any second."

Naruto paused and stared at Gaara, who was walking his way. Naruto lay on the floor with the world famous (and patented) huge stupid grin plastered across his face. Gaara's lips turned slightly upward as he stared down at the blonde boy. Naruto sat up and continued to stare at the sand genin in deep thought. He squinted his eyes and put a hand on his chin and rested his elbow on his knee.

"What's wrong," Gaara asked.

"Nothing. I was just thinking that every hospital room should come equipped with a Kage Bunshin of you because you really brighten up this place. But maybe… I just want to keep you to myself instead. No one else gets your pretty face in their room. That's my ruling!"

Gaara stared at the rambling boy dumbfounded. Naruto had just gone from admitting he had feelings for him to calling him pretty and saying these sweet things about him. He even claimed him as his own? Gaara felt Shukaku stir in his stomach.

"**_You're letting the Kyuubi host claim you? I suppose it could be worse," _**the Tanuki demon chuckled.

Gaara didn't quite understand the implications of demons and claiming, but he didn't really care at that moment.

The redhead dropped to his knees on the floor in front of Naruto. He leaned over the sitting boy and braced himself on Naruto's bent knees. Gaara stared intently at Naruto trying to figure out if he was allowed to do what he wanted to. Naruto blinked at him a few times and Gaara took that as an invitation. He fell forward even more and found his lips planted on his love's soft pink set. Naruto squeaked but quickly calmed down into the kiss.

Gaara pulled back but left his forehead resting on Naruto's. He stared into the cerulean pools and saw himself there. Gaara let himself smile again. He was panting to catch his breath for he had yet to learn the secret ninja technique of breathing through one's nose while making out.

Deep and huskily, a voice that could only belong to one who was of the sand, Gaara whispered, "You're mine. Don't ever forget that. And I promise I'll always belong to you."

Naruto quickly put his legs flat and leaned forward to hug Gaara tightly with a yell of childish glee. He hadn't quite figured out that Gaara's entire weight was resting on those legs he had up. Before either of them knew it, Gaara was lying on top of Naruto on the cold tile floor of the hospital. Both boys were rather shocked by the circumstance but neither made the effort to actually move.

When Gaara started to push himself up on his arms, Naruto's arms pulled his back down promptly.

Gaara whispered in Naruto's ear, because that was the only place he could at the moment, "I was just going to move us to the bed."

"Actually," Naruto responded, "This is comfier than those awful beds. But… I don't want to be here any more. I doubt they're going to release us now… and as soon as you are released from here… you have to… right?"

"Yeah, I'll be leaving," Gaara said solemnly.

"Then let's go. Let's spend the last few moment we have making the perfect memories so we can go back to them whenever we miss each other… I may start living in the past," Naruto laughed.

Gaara stood up, and quietly told Naruto, "I'd rather you'd live with me. But… let's make the most of what we have and work around the things we can't change."

Gaara pulled Naruto up by the hand. Naruto quickly changed back into his normal orange jacket and pants that were waiting for him in the wardrobe. Taking Naruto's hand in his own, Gaara pointed with his other towards his room window so that he could get his things. Quietly, they walked along the wall and Gaara jumped through the window to grab his shoes and clothes.

They quickly made their way down to the street and finally let out the giggles that they had been holding in.

Gaara decided to let Naruto lead the way, considering he knew Konoha so much better than he did. Not surprisingly, they ended up at Ichiraku.

"You don't have anything nearly as good as this stuff in Suna, I'm sure of it," Naruto explained.

"You're probably right, but I don't get out of the house enough to know," Gaara said sheepishly.

Ayame greeted them and told them to sit down and get out of the street. She asked what they would like for their early dinner. Gaara sat clueless and silent and looked to Naruto for help. It wasn't as though he knew anything more about ramen than broth and noodles. Teuchi started inquiring who Naruto's friend was. Naruto slapped Gaara on the back and said something that immediately snapped Gaara out of his befuddlement.

"This guy right here is one of the greatest people you'll ever meet. Remember his face because one day, he'll be Kazekage. Just like I'll be Hokage, ne? Ne?"

Naruto sat laughing and smiling. The waitress whispered something to the cook that sounded like something along the lines of never seeing Naruto so happy around anyone before. Gaara's lips turned upwards.

"Okay, Future Kazekage-sama, what can I get you tonight," the older man asked with a chuckle.

"I don't know."

"Then I'll get you our best," he said jollily. "And, for the next Kazekage, it's on the house so long as you promise to do your best to not let our future Hokage annoy you into war with Konoha. Deal?"

Gaara nodded and smiled at the blonde next to him.

Naruto began rambling off what kind of ramen he wanted, but Gaara could swear that he listed off 20 different kinds. Soon, he realized just how fast Naruto could polish off a bowl. He must have set some kind of record because by the time Gaara was done with one bowl, Naruto had shoveled in 10 whole bowls.

Ayame whispered to Gaara, "Naruto-kun is our best paying customer. Can you tell why? We ever give him free meal coupons because he comes here so often."

Gaara chuckled and slurped some homemade noodles out of the fresh and hot bowl that was set in front of him. Yes, this would be his first great memory. Eating ramen with Naruto was going to be etched in his mind until the day his body returned to the sands. When he finished his second bowl, Naruto finally said that he was full. The blonde left some money on the table, somehow knowing exactly how much he had to pay for what he ate.

The owners of Ichiraku watched as Naruto grabbed Gaara's hand and began walking off towards the edge of town.

Naruto turned and shushed Gaara, "We're really not supposed to leave Konoha, but I want to take you to this really great place just outside of here. It's a small resort town not even a few minutes walk."

Gaara nodded and gripped Naruto's hand tighter. He didn't want to be caught sneaking out of the hospital, much less sneaking out of Konoha. But, as long as he was enjoying his last few hours with Naruto, he would do anything. Once they made it past the line of sight of the guards, Naruto pulled on Gaara's hand and started running. Just as Naruto said, within minutes they had found their way to a small town with hotels and hot springs lined up down every street. Naruto walked into what he claimed to be his favorite one.

Naruto pulled money out of Gama-chan, his frog change purse, and gave it to the old woman who seemed to recognize him at the front desk. She led the two boys to the men's side of the facility and directed them where to store their belongings and where the towels and soap was located.

Naruto immediately began stripping off his clothes and the bandages on his hand. Gaara couldn't take his eyes off of him. Naruto laughed at him and asked if he was going to bathe with his clothes still on. Gaara spun around and also began taking off his clothing. Soon, they were sitting on their stools with soft scrub brushes and soap and cleaning themselves off. Gaara was the first one done. He quickly rinsed off and wrapped a towel around his waist and tied it. Naruto did the same shortly afterwards. Together, they made their way outside and climbed into the deserted hot spring together.

"Isn't this great," Naruto asked.

Gaara made a noise of agreement and looked up at the sky from his seat. He noticed it was slowly getting darker. The first stars were beginning to show against the darkening sky. Gaara found himself wondering if his brother and sister were frantically looking for him. And then, he told himself that he didn't care because he was going home with them. Who knew when the next time he'd get to see Naruto would be…

"Looks like we missed watching the sun set together," Naruto whispered, resting his head on Gaara's shoulder.

"We'll catch it sooner or later. After all, we'll be together for a long time, right?"

Naruto looked up without moving his head and just smiled at Gaara. Gaara smiled back and placed a small kiss on Naruto's forehead. Gaara wrapped an arm around Naruto waist and pulled him closer so there was barely any of that soothing warm water between them. Naruto snuggled up closer and buried his face in Gaara's neck. He quickly put a peck on the soft, pale skin that he found there.

They didn't keep track of exactly how long they were sitting there, but Naruto broke the extremely long, yet comfortable, silence by raising his hand up out of the water and scrunching his face at it.

"I'm all wrinkled. Should we get out?"

Gaara nodded, "Let's make memories somewhere else."

It wasn't long before they found themselves running from the cold night back inside to dry off and get dressed. As soon as they were dry and had their clothes on, Gaara pointed out that Naruto's hair was still dripping. He put a dry towel on the soaked blonde mop and started rubbing furiously. Naruto very nearly fell to the floor laughing. Gaara bit his lip in determination and brought Naruto closer to him and caught him with one arm. The other arm continued to dry off his hair.

Naruto leaned his back against Gaara's chest and melted into the embrace. Naruto couldn't remember ever being held by such warm and loving arms like this. He sighed deeply and Gaara dropped the towel on the ground. He other arm came around Naruto's chest and he rested his forehead against Naruto's shoulder. He squeezed tightly, not wanting to ever let go of this moment. However, Naruto nearly ruined the serenity by spinning around and throwing his arms up over Gaara's shoulders and kissing him square on the lips. Gaara smiled into the kiss and returned the embrace.

Gaara looked Naruto in the eyes and said lowly, "I love you, with everything I am. I love you."

Naruto smiled and laughed, "I love you, too. C'mon we have so much more that we can do. I have the greatest idea, too."

Gaara nodded and let himself be dragged around yet again by the energetic blonde. They found themselves attempting to sneak back into Konohagakure. From what Gaara could tell Naruto was leading them directly to the monument. If the millions of stairs that they were climbing was any clue, Gaara guessed that the Hokage Monument was indeed their final destination. Gaara smirked when he found out he was right.

Naruto let go of his hand and ran up the last few steps and hopped his way to the edge of the cliff. He spread his arms out and took a deep breath.

"This is my village," Naruto declared. "And as the future Hokage, I welcome you to it. I hope you have enjoyed your stay here, future Kazekage-sama. I hope our relations will always be good between our villages."

"If I'm to be the Kazekage, and you're to be the Hokage," Gaara laughed. "I see no reason why the relations _wouldn't_ be good."

"Very true, Kazekage-sama," Naruto spoke, imitating the laughing voice of a high-ranking old man.

Gaara sat down on the ground, "You really think I should be Kazekage?"

"Of course," Naruto yelled. "You'll be the best one to date!"

"It wouldn't be hard to top my father," Gaara muttered.

Naruto narrowed his eyes to slits and crossed his arms over his chest. He began walking down the side of the monument. Gaara walked over to the edge to look down at Naruto. He found the blonde crouching in an animalistic position on the nose of the Yondaime Hokage. The Fourth's smiling face looked on towards Konoha. Naruto looked up at Gaara and frowned.

"It'll be extra hard to top my father," he called to Gaara.

"I have faith in you, Naruto," the redhead called back.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. Then, after that flash of emotion Naruto was up by Gaara's side smiling and hugging him tightly. Gaara let a small smile cross his face for the _n_th time that night. In truth the number was uncountable being around Naruto.

Gaara and Naruto found themselves sitting up all night on top of that monument telling small details about their past, their hopes for the future, and just discussing every last thing that they could think of so that they wouldn't fall asleep and could spend every last second with each other. They didn't want to waste a single moment. However, they knew sleep was inevitable. Their words were becoming further and further apart. Their responses were slower to come. They had begun yawning after nearly every sentence or even in the middle of words.

Slowly, they had been snuggling closer. The pair had started with holding hands and lying on their backs staring up at the stars. Their currently position was Gaara on his back with his arm around Naruto's waist. Naruto had curled up like a kitten against Gaara and was half-way on top of him with his unruly blonde hair tickling Gaara's chin. It wasn't until Naruto started snoring that Gaara closed his eyes along with him.

Gaara dreamt about flying and soaring through the sky with wings on his back, holding Naruto's hand. He had visions of tumbling through fields with Naruto, laughing and smiling all the way. Naruto dreamt of eating ramen with Gaara and snuggling up while playing video games. He saw the two of them playing hide and seek in the forests surrounding Konoha. He saw them coloring in a book together and enjoying a childhood neither of the boys ever got.

But soon, their dreams came to an end and both woke up to someone standing about them coughing. When they opened their eyes and looked up, they found an entire gathering of people standing in a circle around them. Temari, Kankuro, Kakashi, Iruka, Sasuke, Sakura, and even Tsunade were hovering over the two boys. All of them wore very stern faces. It was Temari who spoke first.

"We've been worried sick trying to find the both of you," she growled.

"We were up all night looking," Sakura added.

"I'm disappointed in you, Naruto. You should know better," Iruka sighed.

"At least they aren't dead," Kakashi added.

Sasuke grunted in reply to his sensei. Kankuro just shook his head. But what scared Naruto was that the Godaime Hokage wasn't saying anything at all. She just stood there with her hands on her hips contemplating how she should begin yelling at the two. Suddenly her face lightened up and she smiled at them. Naruto became noticeably worried at that.

"I suppose we shouldn't be too hard on the lovebirds. They just wanted their time together. No harm came of it. That group hasn't even been reported in the area for some time now," Tsunade stated, smiling down at them. "Plus, I'm sure they're so worn out now… but Gaara won't mind the three day trip home or the hearty amount of missions Naruto will be assigned."

The two stood up and nodded.

"I slept," Gaara said while brushing off his clothes. He looked up to his brother and sister, "It was really nice to sleep."

The two smiled at him and each put a hand on one of his shoulders.

"All right everyone, its time for our guests to leave," Tsunade shouted. "You're all dismissed."

Within a second, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Iruka were at their houses for some well-deserved rest after being up all night looking for the missing pair of genin. Tsunade sighed and looked at Naruto and then to Gaara.

"I wish there was something I could do," she started. "But, there really isn't. Right now, Suna needs you three back because of the state your village is in. You still don't have a Kazekage and I'm sure they'd like the whole village there to decide."

Naruto flung himself at Gaara's back. He buried his face in the redhead's clothing to hide his tears. However, Gaara could still feel the wetness spreading across his back and everyone could see his body racked with sobs. Naruto still didn't want to admit that Gaara was really leaving. He kept hoping that something else would come up. He really didn't want Gaara to leave, especially after everything that had happened last night.

Gaara pulled Naruto's hands from his stomach and turned around to face Naruto. He rested his head on the blonde's orange shoulder and pushed Naruto's head onto his own. They stay that way together for a while, never wanting to let go. Eventually, they did separate but held on to each other's hands.

"I'll write. Very often. It'll be like you're here experiencing it with me. They'll be really long and detailed letters. And I'll have to get Iruka-sensei to help me spell some things, I'm sure, but I'll do it."

Gaara smiled, "And I'll write back all the time."

"I'll pressure Tsunade-baachan to give me missions that could take me to or through Suna just so I can see you as often as possible. I'll be extremely annoying so she'll just have to kick me out and give me a mission like I want. She can't ignore my request. I won't let her ignore it," sobbed Naruto.

"I'll try to come here, too, if the new Kazekage allows."

"We'll see each other again as soon as possible. I'm sure of it," Naruto yelled through his tears.

"I believe you, Naruto," Gaara smiled. "I won't say goodbye, because I'll see you soon."

Naruto nodded and kissed him.

They let go of each other's hands and Gaara began slowly backing away. Soon, the three sand siblings were out of Tsunade and Naruto's sights. The female Hokage put an arm around Naruto's shoulders to try and calm him down. It didn't help much, but soon he was only hiccupping instead of dramatically sobbing.

"I'll do everything I can for you, Naruto," Tsunade whispered to her favorite genin.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I'll be right back. There is one last thing I need to say."

Naruto then began running down the faces of the past Hokage's and down to the streets. He ran as hard and fast as his legs would allow just to make it to the gates of Konoha before it was too late. When Naruto arrived, the large wooden gates were still open so it couldn't have been too long since they had left. Naruto barely saw a flash of Gaara adjusting his gourd and disappearing into the trees. Naruto took the opportunity to shout what he wanted to say in hopes of Gaara still being near enough to hear.

"GAARA! I LOVE YOU!"

Naruto waited… and received no response. He was about to give up hope when suddenly something plopped down in front of him scaring his pants off.

"I love you, too, Naruto," Gaara said while caressing Naruto's whiskered cheek.

Naruto smiled and Gaara smiled back. Temari and Kankuro appeared at the forest edge, Temari with her hands on her hips.

"I have to go. I'll see you soon," Gaara whispered.

"Yeah," Naruto replied.

And in an instant, the three were again gone from his sight. Naruto slowly turned around and trudged back into the village. The gates shut behind him with a large wooden thud. He began instinctively walking to the Hokage's office to see if he couldn't get a mission right away to go to Suna.

Someone else obstructed his path before he got there. A large tall man with clanking geta and long white hair appeared before him laughing.

"Naruto, Naruto! Have I got a deal for you! I want you to come with me to do research and guess what you get in return! Not only will I train you more, but I promise that at least once during our journey we will stop in Sunagakure! How does that sound to you? I've already got that old hag's permission, too."

"Stop in Suna? I'm in… When do we leave?"

"As soon as your ready, brat. Get your stuff and we can go right now."

Naruto nodded with excitement. He ran back to his house and started throwing everything he needed into his backpack. He pulled out his safe and stuffed Gama-chan full to the seams. He then ran back out to meet Ero-sennin. He would be going to Suna at least once, he had said. Naruto ran smiling to Jiraiya and the gates opened for them to leave. Together, they walked out of Konoha. Naruto didn't take the time to stop and look things over or say goodbye to anyone because he didn't know that it wouldn't be until nearly 3 years later that he would actually return to his birthplace.


	15. Sequel Announcement

Bakemono Ai is over. Done. Finished. But there is still some good news!

Just for everyone who's watching and waiting, the sequel is up.

Go check out Tsubasa no Ai.

I apologize for the long wait, but if you've stuck around this long, I promise that I'll make it worth it for you. Thank you so much for being here with me.


End file.
